I am not one of the great composers. All the great have produced enormously. There is everything in their work - the best and the worst, but there is always quantity. But I have written relatively little.

The only love affair I have ever had was with music.

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

You might lose your spontaneity and, instead of composing first-rate Gershwin, end up with second rate Ravel.

We should always remember that sensitiveness and emotion constitute the real content of a work of art

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

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