"I'm interested in everything in life except music."

"I have a predilection for composing in bedrooms."

"I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse."

"I was not especially friendly with Rachmaninov at the time, nor, I think, was any one else: social relations with a man of Rachmaninov's temperament require more perseverance than I can afford: he was…"

"Silence will save me from being wrong (and foolish), but it will also deprive me of the possibility of being right."