If we look at the works of JS Bach ... on each page we discover things which we thought were born only yesterday, from delightful arabesques to an overflowing of religious feeling greater than anything we have since discovered.

Composers aren't daring enough. They're afraid of that sacred idol called 'common sense', which is the most dreadful thing I know - after all, it's no more than a religion founded to excuse the ubiquity of imbeciles!

I love music passionately. And because I love it I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it.

The century of airplanes has a right to its own music.

Beauty seems to strike some people as a personal affront.

Music is the expression of the movement of the waters, the play of curves described by changing breezes.

Anyone who calls my music "impressionist" is an imbecile.