Then, after the war it was impossible to travel, after so many years of Hitler and Stalin.

When I was younger I was completely without money - when I was studying in Budapest, when I was a refugee

I like to stay home and listen to recordings.

Once, in London, the BBC asked me what was my favorite English book. I said Alice in Wonderland

There is a wonderful Hungarian literature, especially in lyric poetry.

Now there is no taboo; everything is allowed. But one cannot simply go back to tonality, it’s not the way. We must find a way of neither going back nor continuing the avant-garde. I am in a prison: one wall is the avant-garde, the other wall is the past, and I want to escape.

I write bars, for the musicians, because they have to be together.