I can't imagine how many first performances I've done, perhaps 500. Some of them have been very good, and some of course very bad.

If I were in a position to announce a public competition to coin a new word, I would do so right now.

Classic music somehow changed, and it changed between the first and the second world wars, and somehow what happened was that the hero that had been the composer, the hero now was the performer, and especially the conductor.

The act of conducting in itself, of waving my arms in the air and being in charge, I didn't miss. I missed the sensual pleasure of being in contact with music.

Anyone who composes and conducts at the same time is immediately suspect, because he must be faking one or the other.

The underlying process in Northern music tends to be slower and continuous, whatever's happening on the surface; in Southern music the underlying process is always faster.

My music wouldn't sound the way it does if I hadn't had the experience of conducting.