I only want to give a metaphysic for my music.

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

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.

My grandfather was not a musician but he was an artist - a painter, a decorative painter.

Stravinsky used Mother Goose. He was influenced by Mother Goose, indirectly, but very beautifully

It isn't false modesty when I say this, but although I am supposed to be a famous person it doesn't mean anything to me. I just sit at home and work.

I like to stay home and listen to recordings.