We cannot describe sound, but we cannot forget it either.

The real composer thinks about his work the whole time; he is not always conscious of this, but he is aware of it later when he suddenly knows what he will do.

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

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

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.

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

Harpists spend 90 percent of their lives tuning their harps and 10 percent playing out of tune.