My childhood was a period of waiting for the moment when I could send everyone and everything connected with it to hell.

Revolution means turning the wheel.

My childhood was a period of waiting for the moment when I could send everyone and everything connected with it to hell.

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

I know that the twelve notes in each octave and the variety of rhythm offer me opportunities that all of human genius will never exhaust.

I was...attacked for being a pasticheur, chided for composing "simple" music, blamed for deserting "modernism," accused of renouncing my "true Russian heritage." People who had never heard of, or cared about, the originals cried "sacrilege": "The classics are ours. Leave the classics alone." To them all my answer was and is the same: You "respect," but I love.

My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self of the chains that shackle the spirit.