"I have been called the 'Picasso of music.' I myself have never said that. I have always preferred to be myself."

"I come to Italy [1935] not only to make music, but also to be in a country that is moving forward vigorously, that affirms itself ever more rigorously, in which one sees everywhere the imprint, and on…"

"To listen is an effort, and a creative effort. The listener now becomes a performer."

"Every time I compose, I think of a fresh way of doing it."

"The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees oneself. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution."