When I went to the analyst for a kind of preliminary meeting, he said, 'I'll be able to fix you so that you'll write much more music than you do now.' I said, 'Good heavens! I already write too much, it seems to me.' That promise of his put me off.

There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing.

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.

If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.

Music is edifying, for from time to time it sets the soul in operation.

When you make music you are acting as a philosopher. You can either do that consciously or you can do it unconsciously, but you're doing it.

Beware of losing what isn't in your head.