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.

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.

Remember that I wrote a pavane for a dead princess, and not a dead pavane for a princess!

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.

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

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