My intention here is to make it clear that not a single cell of my composition, here in regard to The Raven, is found by chance or intuition, that the composition moved towards perfection with the precision and inevitability of a mathematical equation.

I do not ask for my music to be interpreted, but only for it to be played.

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

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

Does it not occur to people that I might be artificial by nature?

I begin by considering an effect.

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.