A composer is not only an architect but also an inventor, and he should not build houses in which he cannot live.

Music's exclusive function is to structure the flow of time and keep order in it.

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

What force is more potent than love?

I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.

The performance of performance has developed to such an extent in recent years that it challenges the music itself and will soon threaten it with relegation.

One's belief that one is sincere is not so dangerous as one's conviction that one is right. We all feel we are right; but we felt the same way twenty years ago and today we know we weren't always right.