My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self of the chains that shackle the spirit.

When I discovered that I had been made custodian of this gift, in my earliest childhood, I pledged myself to God to be worthy of it, but I have received uncovenanted mercies all my life. The custodian has too often kept faith on his all-too-worldly terms.

My music is best understood by children and animals.

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

An artist is like a pig snouting truffles.

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

One has a nose. The nose scents and it chooses. An artist is simply a kind of pig snouting truffles.