The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.

I knew I had to write a Mass of my own, but a real one.

It is my conviction that the public always shows itself more honest in its spontaneity than do those who officially set themselves up as judges of works of art.

An audience is an abstraction; it has no taste. It must depend on the only person who has (pardon, should have), the conductor.

To continue in one path is to go backward.

Nothing is likely about masterpieces, least of all whether there will be any.

I was born out of due time in the sense that by temperament and talent I should have been more suited for the life of a small Bach, living in anonymity and composing regularly for an established service and for God.