Igor Stravinsky

"The real revolution in music is the conquest of tradition."

"Art must be necessary, or it is merely decoration."

"I compose not to entertain, but to enlighten."

"The conductor without passion is merely moving a stick in the air."

"Mastery is the result of ten thousand hours of disciplined effort."

"Music is the language God understands."

"The composer's greatest enemy is habit."

"Art that does not challenge is art that does not exist."

"The past has no power over the present moment."

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

"Composition is devoid of spontaneity."

"A work of art is above all an adventure of the mind."

"The more laws and order are made prominent, the less respect there is for the laws and order themselves."

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

"To innovate is not to reform."

"The serial composer is the only one who may lay claim to the title of inventor."

"Art is the objective of life."

"Remember always that the composer's pen is still mightier than the bow of the violinist; in you lie all possibilities of the creation of beauty."

"Forget the past and about half of the unhappy events then fade away."

"Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end."

"The public doesn't want new music; the main thing that it demands of a composer is that he be dead."

"One has a nose. The nose smells. The thing smelled is not separate from the smell."

"Learn, learn, learn and then never cease learning; that is the secret of greatness."

"A man can be to himself what he chooses to be, if he only constantly wills it."

"The only love affair I have ever had was with music."

"Perfection is not just about control. It is also about letting go."

"Music should be something that makes us feel, not something that makes us think."

"The more you accumulate knowledge, the more you realize the vastness of your ignorance."

"An artist is someone for whom the last thing in the world he would want to do is something useful."

"In great music there is always a mystery."