"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."

"If a work is not finished by me before I begin to compose it, then I experience the deepest torment."

"I have never understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it."

"Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven."