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

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

I never am sea sick, never. I am sea drunk!

Silence will save me from being wrong (and foolish), but it will also deprive me of the possibility of being right.

Music is...the coordination between man and time.

Good composers don't borrow, they steal

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.