"I was not a 'revolutionary' in the sense of a man with a message. The only thing I was aware of was that I was doing my work, and that it was a question of going forward."

"He [Rachmaninov] was a six and a half foot scowl."

"I have never understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it."

"Music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all."

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