"I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge."

"I am a very emotional man, but I do not show it."

"I am not a theorist. I am a practitioner."

"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."

"I believe in God, and I believe in the devil."