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

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

Vivaldi didn't write 400 concertos; he wrote one concerto 400 times.

The more controlled, limited and tormented art is, the freer it is.

An artist is like a pig snouting truffles.

The principle of the endless melody is the perpetual becoming of a music that never had any reason for starting, any more than it has any reason for ending.

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