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.

The further one separates himself from the precepts of the Christian Church, the further one distances himself from the truth. Only God can create. I make music from music.

Composition is frozen improvisation.

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

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

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.

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