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

To me, Mozart is our Shakespeare, the one who wrote the most dramatic, psychologically most baffling music. He combined ideas that no one else would have thought of putting together.

Composing is like making love to the future.

To understand Mozart's contradictory qualities would indeed be to understand genius.

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.

Most artists have experienced the creative block. We get stuck in our work. We beat our head against the wall: nothing. Sometimes, it is because we are trying something at the wrong time.

I don't dare postulate about science, but I know that it takes both emotion and intellect in order for art to happen.