Silences between movements are employed only in order to bring the opposing duo to the fore.

The Third Quartet I made the instruments in pairs - Two different pairs - Violin and viola, and violin and cello. They played very different things from each other all through the whole piece.

The first thing that struck me about contemporary music in general had been thatthere was not much interest in rhythm.

When I was in Paris, all of the German refugees began to flow in and it was a very sad time.

That was one of the big problems when I was at Harvard studying music. We had to write choral pieces in the style of Brahms or Mendelssohn, which was distressing because in the end you realized how good Brahms is, and how bad you are.

Since I'm allergic to various things, the army wouldn't accept me during the war, and I got into the Office of War Information, which sent music to Europe.

The Quartets have been a major part of my work.