Oboes Quotations

What the hell is an oboe?

I remember once, when I started writing for the alto saxophone, a saxophonist told me to think of it as being like a cross between an oboe and a viola, but louder.

Every orchestra is different. Sometimes, you're blown away by a particular musician. If I'm playing the Brahms concerto, it's crucial to have a great oboe player, because we work in tandem.

An oboe is an ill-wind that nobody blows good.

Conductors do not know how the oboe does its work, but they know what the oboe should contribute.

The oboe sounds like a clarinet with a cold.

One other hobby of mine has been playing the oboe but I have not kept this up after 1969.

And that unusual squawking sound is actually the mating call of the the rare...oh, it's just an oboe player.