What I cannot follow are the manic-depressive fluctuations from total control to no control, from the serialization of all elements to chance.

I was...attacked for being a pasticheur, chided for composing "simple" music, blamed for deserting "modernism," accused of renouncing my "true Russian heritage." People who had never heard of, or cared about, the originals cried "sacrilege": "The classics are ours. Leave the classics alone." To them all my answer was and is the same: You "respect," but I love.

Composers combine notes, that's all.

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

The true creator may be recognized by his ability always to find about him, in the commonest and humblest thing, items worthy of note.

My childhood was a period of waiting for the moment when I could send everyone and everything connected with it to hell.

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