When I was young I wanted to play the guitar, but I was told it wasn't respectable.

There were no great guitarists, because there was. no great repertory. I tried to break the circle by calling upon my friends who were composers to write for my in-strument. But I never com-missioned. They wrote spon-taneously, and after hearing me play their pieces, they continued to write for me.

I've had three wives and three guitars. I still play the guitars.

You know what I think? If I am tired now, I don't mind, because I have eternity to rest.

When one puts up a building one makes an elaborate scaffold to get everything into its proper place. But when one takes the scaffold down, the building must stand by itself with no trace of the means by which it was erected. That is how a musician should work.

When I began, the guitar was en-closed in a vicious circle. There were no composers writing for the guitar, be-cause there were no virtuoso guitarists.