Music must be listened to; it is not enough to hear it. A duck hears also.

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

Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.

I take no pride in my artistic talents; they are God-given and I see absolutely no reason to become puffed up over something that one has received.

Music is given to us with the sole purpose of establishing an order in things, including, and particularly, the coordination between man and time.

The real composer thinks about his work the whole time; he is not always conscious of this, but he is aware of it later when he suddenly knows what he will do.

Art postulates communion, and the artist has an imperative need to make others share the joy which he experiences himself.