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.

I remember being handed a score composed by Mozart at the age of eleven. What could I say? I felt like de Kooning, who was asked to comment on a certain abstract painting, and answered in the negative. He was then told it was the work of a celebrated monkey. 'That's different. For a monkey, it's terrific'.

Look for the music on all things, and life will be a symphony of joy. My music is best understood by children and animals.

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

Music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all. Music expresses itself.

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.

Composition is frozen improvisation.