"For I consider that music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all, whether a feeling…"

"As for myself, I need music for hygienic purposes, for the health of my soul. Without music in its best sense there i…"

"I was...attacked for being a pasticheur, chided for composing “simple” music, blamed for deserting “modernism,” accus…"

"My music is best understood by children and animals."

"One has a nose. The nose scents and it chooses. An artist is simply a kind of pig snouting truffles."

"The over-publicized bit about expression (or non-expression) was simply a way of saying that music is supra-personal …"

"The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music; they sho…"

"Music's exclusive function is to structure the flow of time and keep order in it."

"Much of the music is a Merzbild, put together from whatever came to hand. I mean, for example...the Alberti-bass horn…"

"One can say that for European music the innovation of Stravinsky was revolutionary because again, Stravinsky and that…"