Why is it that whenever I hear a piece of music I don't like, it's always by Villa Lobos?

Nothing is likely about masterpieces, least of all whether there will be any.

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.

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.

The more controlled, limited and tormented art is, the freer it is.

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

Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody's piano playing in my living room has on the book I am reading.