I know that the twelve notes in each octave and the variety of rhythm offer me opportunities that all of human genius will never exhaust.
IGOR STRAVINSKYI knew I had to write a Mass of my own, but a real one.
More Igor Stravinsky Quotes
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A good composer does not imitate; he steals.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
Mediocrity borrows, genius steals.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
The real composer thinks about his work the whole time; he is not always conscious of this, but he is aware of it later when he suddenly knows what he will do.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
One’s belief that one is sincere is not so dangerous as one’s conviction that one is right. We all feel we are right; but we felt the same way twenty years ago and today we know we weren’t always right.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody’s piano playing in my living room has on the book I am reading.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
Why is it that whenever I hear a piece of music I don’t like, it’s always by Villa Lobos?
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
The performance has developed to such an extent in recent years that it challenges the music itself and will soon threaten it with relegation.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
All you have to do is close your eyes and wait for the symbols.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
Music’s exclusive function is to structure the flow of time and keep order in it.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
To be deprived of art and left alone with philosophy is to be close to Hell.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
Money may kindle, but it cannot by itself, and for very long, burn.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
An artist is like a pig snouting truffles.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
What gives the artist real prestige is his imitators.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
The further one separates himself from the precepts of the Christian Church, the further one distances himself from the truth. Only God can create. I make music from music.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
My God, so much I like to drink Scotch that sometimes I think my name is Igor Stra-whiskey.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
Is it not by love alone that we succeed in penetrating to the very essence of being?
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
I take no pride in my artistic talents; they are God-given and I see absolutely no reason to become puffed up over something that one has received.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
There is music wherever there is rhythm, as there is life wherever there beats a pulse.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
The faculty of creating is never given to us all by itself. It always goes hand in hand with the gift of observation.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
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.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
Look for the music on all things, and life will be a symphony of joy. My music is best understood by children and animals.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
What I cannot follow are the manic-depressive fluctuations from total control to no control, from the serialization of all elements to chance.
IGOR STRAVINSKY