I did my work slowly, drop by drop. I tore it out of me by pieces.
I do not ask for my music to be interpreted, but only for it to be played.
Does it not occur to people that I might be artificial by nature?
Music, I feel, must be emotional first and intellectual second.
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.
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.