Stravinsky the composer I worship. Stravinsky the thinker I despise.

A great piece of music is beautiful regardless of how it is performed.

Music is a means capable of expressing dark dramatism and pure rapture, suffering and ecstasy, fiery and cold fury, melancholy and wild merriment – and the subtlest nuances and interplay of these feelings which words are powerless to express and which are unattainable in painting and sculpture.

Real music is always revolutionary, for it cements the ranks of the people; it arouses them and leads them onward.

The majority of my symphonies are tombstones.

I always try to make myself as widely understood as possible; and if I don't succeed, I consider it my own fault.

The best way to hold on to something is to pay no attention to it. The things you love too much perish. You have to treat everything with irony, especially the things you hold dear. There's more of a chance then that they'll survive.