It s not just enough to swing at the ball. You've got to loosen your girdle and really let the ball have it.
Technique is communication: the two words are synonymous in conductors.
Technique is noticed most markedly in the case of those who have not mastered it.
Technique is really personality. That is the reason why the artist cannot teach it, why the pupil cannot learn it, and why the aesthetic critic can understand it. To the great poet, there is only one method of music — his own. To the great painter, there is only one manner of painting — that which he himself employs. The aesthetic critic, and the aesthetic critic alone, can appreciate all forms and all modes. It is to him that Art makes her appeal.
Technique is the test of sincerity. If a thing isn't worth getting the technique to say, it is of inferior value.
The moment a man begins to talk about technique that's proof that he is fresh out of ideas.
The more technique you have, the less you have to worry about it. The more technique there is, the less there is.
To focus on technique is like cramming your way through school. You sometimes get by, perhaps even get good grades, but if you don't pay the price day in and day out, you'll never achieve true mastery of the subjects you study or develop an educated mind.