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

We have a duty towards music, namely, to invent it.

Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning.

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.

My music is best understood by children and animals.

It is my conviction that the public always shows itself more honest in its spontaneity than do those who officially set themselves up as judges of works of art.

Old age is a time of humiliations, the most disagreeable of which, for me, is that I cannot work long at sustained high pressure with no leaks in concentration.