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

Art postulates communion, and the artist has an imperative need to make others share the joy which he experiences himself.

Music is the sole domain in which man realizes the present.

I take no pride in my artistic talents; they are God-given and I see absolutely no reason to become puffed up over something that one has received.

A cultural snob is someone who claims to be familiar with the incomprehensible.

We have a duty towards music; namely to invent it. ...Invention presupposes imagination but should not be confused with it. For the act of invention implies the necessity of a lucky find and of achieving realization of this find. What we imagine does not necessarily take on concrete form and may remain in a state of virtuality; whereas invention is not conceivable apart from its actually being worked out.

Old age is a time of humiliations, the most disagreeable of which, for me, is that I cannot work long at sustained high pressure with no leaks in concentration.