Igor Stravinsky — "The greatest joy one can have is to create."

"I come to Italy [1935] not only to make music, but also to be in a country that is moving forward vigorously, that affirms itself ever more rigorously, in which one sees everywhere the imprint, and on…"

"A composer is or isn't; he cannot learn to acquire the gift that makes him one, and whether he has it or not, in either case, he will not need anything I can tell him now."

"He [Rachmaninov] was a six and a half foot scowl."

"The artist is a vessel for the divine."

"Music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all."