First of all, ladies and gentlemen, you must forget that you are singers.

Extreme complication is contrary to art.

He was the incomparable painter of mystery, silence, and the infinite, of the passing cloud, and the sunlit shimmer of the waves-subleties which none before him had been capable of suggesting.

The century of aeroplanes deserves its own music. As there are no precedents, I must create anew.

The sound of the sea, the curve of a horizon, wind in leaves, the cry of a bird leave manifold impression in us. And suddenly, without our wishing it at all, one of these memories spills from us and finds expression in musical language...I want to sing my interior landscape with the simple artlessness of a child.

There is nothing more musical than a sunset.

I wish to sing of my interior visions with the naive candour of a child.