To George Gershwin, on refusinghim as a pupil: You would only lose the spontaneous quality of your melody, and end by writing bad Ravel.

If he'd been making shell-cases during the war it might have been better for music.

For Debussy the musician and the man I have had profound admiration, but by nature I'm different from him. I think I have always personally followed a direction opposed to that of the symbolism of Debussy.

Music, I feel, must be emotional first and intellectual second.

Why become a second-rate Ravel when you're already a first-rate Gershwin?

I begin by considering an effect.

I did my work slowly, drop by drop. I tore it out of me by pieces.