Igor Stravinsky

"The greatest achievement of a composer is to move a single person."

"Music without passion is merely notes on paper."

"I believe that every person has the capacity to understand music."

"The composer's greatest enemy is self-doubt."

"To write a great symphony is to write the truth of one's soul."

"The past has ruined us and we are cursed by it."

"I have nothing to say and I am saying it."

"Composition is like a journey through a landscape you have never seen before."

"The more art is controlled, threatened, and persecuted, the more it flourishes."

"One cannot evolve if one does not change one's mind constantly."

"Music must serve a purpose; it cannot exist for itself alone."

"A creator's duty is to provide nourishment for thought."

"The real problem is whether the composer can write anything of value at all."

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

"Art is the only serious thing in the world."

"Every moment in the creative act is an act of faith."

"One does not defend one's country with music."

"To be cubist in music means seeking multiple truths simultaneously."

"The conductor must be a man of action, not a dreamer."

"Inspiration, I am convinced, does not come to the lazy."

"Work hard and produce something of value to yourself and others."

"The least interesting thing about a work of art is what the artist intended."

"Memory is an enormous treasure house of combinations."

"Academicism results when the reasons for the rules have been forgotten."

"Art is not a democracy; it is a dictatorship of genius."

"I cannot understand how one can seriously apply oneself to the loathsome socialities and vulgarity that fashion decrees we must live in."

"Music is the only language which enables us to converse with beings from another world."

"The sinner is at least alive, which the righteous can never be."

"To stop the flow of music would be to stop the flow of time itself."

"I compose for myself, and the public may listen if it pleases."