Except for the violin pieces and a few of my orchestra pieces, all of my works from the Passacaglia on relate to the death of my mother.

It's always the same: mediocrities are over-valued and great men are rejected.

Comprehensibility is the highest law of all. Unity must be there. There must be means of ensuring it. All the things familiar to us from primitive life must also be used in works of art.

Indeed, man only exists insofar as he expresses himself. Music does it in musical ideas.

Music is natural law as related to the sense of hearing.

Your ears will always lead you right, but you must know why.

What is music? Music is language. A human being wants to express ideas in this language, but not ideas that can be translated into concepts.

Art is a product of nature in general, in the particular form of human nature.

People ask me all the time, "Where do your ideas come from?" So, to clear up this question...I keep my ideas inside the mind of a tiny man who is tied up in my closet!

I had to inspect all fighter units in Russia, Africa, Sicily, France, and Norway. I had to be everywhere.

The inborn geniality of some people amounts to genius.

We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us.

out of sight,out of mind

We're breaking all of the rules, even our own rules, and how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.

You never know what's hit you. A gunshot is the perfect way.

Everyone is a photographer now, remember. That's the great thing about photography.

I like the way hip-hop is now. It's grown up enough so that it can get involved with politics if it feels like it.

Ah, yes, superstition: it would appear to be cowardice in face of the supernatural.