I live neither in the past nor in the future. I am in the present. I cannot know what tomorrow will bring forth. I can know only what the truth is for me today. That is what I am called upon to serve, and I serve it in all lucidity.

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

To be deprived of art and left alone with philosophy is to be close to Hell.

Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.

We can neither put back the clock nor slow down our forward speed, and as we are already flying pilotless, on instrument controls, it is even too late to ask where we are going.

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

The Church knew what the psalmist knew: Music praises God. Music is well or better able to praise him than the building of the church and all its decoration; it is the Church's greatest ornament.