Igor Stravinsky

"I do not have the slightest conception of higher and lower desires."

"Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman."

"The god who created neurosurgeons sure gave them talented hands."

"To deprive music of operating upon us through the senses is to deprive us of its identity."

"Personal taste is a mixture of accidents, education, and the knowledge of a hundred things."

"The more willing we are to acknowledge fear, the stronger we become."

"A serious composer is not less serious than a serious poet."

"You compose because you must; you have no choice in the matter."

"One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often."

"The past is everywhere. It's lodged in our bodies and minds."

"What does music mean to me? Many things."

"Conductors' careers are made for the most part with 'Romantic' music."

"The ear is the only true writer and the only true reader."

"Offend in neither direction; follow the middle path."

"Nothing can be said which has not been said before."

"There is nothing more dangerous than the influence of an inferior intellect."

"Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions."

"The real composer thinks about his work the whole time; he is not always at the piano."

"I wish to speak directly to those who want to better themselves."

"Forget everything you know about counterpoint and just listen to the harmony."

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

"Evolution implies gradual change in one direction; I do not believe in it in music."

"The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world."

"I have learned that the object and subject of music are not the phenomenon of feeling, but the action of forces."

"In the past, before the age of mechanical reproduction, one could speak of the authenticity of a work of art."

"The less one listens to orchestral music, the more tolerant one becomes of its absence."

"Art is not democratic. It is not for everybody. And it shouldn't be."

"Whatever I fear most becomes what I must transform into beauty."

"To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit."

"The measure of a life is not its duration, but its donation."