The only love affair I have ever had was with music.
Remember that I wrote a pavane for a dead princess, and not a dead pavane for a princess!
Why become a second-rate Ravel when you're already a first-rate Gershwin?
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.
Does it not occur to people that I might be artificial by nature?
To George Gershwin, on refusinghim as a pupil: You would only lose the spontaneous quality of your melody, and end by writing bad Ravel.