I owe very, very much to Mozart; and if one studies, for instance, the way in which I write for string quartet, then one cannot deny that I have learned this directly from Mozart. And I am proud of it!

Lucidity is the first purpose of color in music.

I never was very capable of expressing my feelings or emotions in words. I don't know whether this is the cause why I did it in music and also why I did it in painting. Or vice versa: That I had this way as an outlet. I could renounce expressing something in words.

I am the slave of an internal power more powerful than my education.

If it is art, it is not for all, and if it is for all, it is not art.

I have never seen faces, but because I have looked people in the eye, only their gazes.

Composing is a slowed-down improvisation; often one cannot write fast enough to keep up with the stream of ideas.