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!

My music is not modern, it is merely badly played

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

The principal function of form is to advance our understanding. It is the organization of a piece which helps the listener to keep the idea in mind, to follow its development, its growth, its elaboration, its fate.

There is still plenty of good music to be written in C major.

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

Great art must proceed to precision and brevity. It presupposes the alert mind of an educated listener who, in a singleact of thinking, includes with every concept all associations pertaining to the complex.