To judge a composer's work, one must consider it as a whole.

It is a funny thing, but when I am making music, all the answers I seek for in life seem to be there, in the music. Or rather, I should say, when I am making music, there are no questions and no need for answers.

To write a symphony is, for me, to construct a world.

There is a world of difference between a Mahler eighth note and a normal eighth note.

If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.

With the coming of spring, I am calm again.

Tradition is the spreading of fire and not the veneration of ashes.