If I am not making music, I have no reason for existing.

[on Richard Wagner] A beautiful sunset that was mistaken for a dawn.

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

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.

How much has to be explored and discarded before reaching the naked flesh of feeling.

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

People come to music to seek oblivion: is that not also a form of deception?