If one uses music that one does not really love, then one will not succeed in making it one's own.

I still do not know where the notes will come from when I accept a commission for a new work.

Composing is like making love to the future.

That is why the analogy of stealing does not work. With a thief, we want to know how much money he or she stole, and from whom? With the artist it is not how much he or she took from whom, but what the artist did with it.

The fact that Stravinsky used the classics as a major influence is obvious. What is interesting is how he used them, how he turned Bach into Stravinsky.

Great music does not just make me feel good. It means something. It makes us understand. It makes us happy.

If one uses music that one does not really love, then one will not succeed in making it one's own.