Invention presupposes imagination but should not be confused with it.

I never understood the need for a "live" audience. My music, because of its extreme quietude, would be happiest with a dead one.

Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.

Old age is a time of humiliations, the most disagreeable of which, for me, is that I cannot work long at sustained high pressure with no leaks in concentration.

The Church knew what the psalmist knew: Music praises God. Music is well or better able to praise him than the building of the church and all its decoration; it is the Church's greatest ornament.

I am an inventor of music.

Conductors' careers are made for the most part with 'Romantic' music. 'Classic' music eliminates the conductor; we do not remember him in it.