black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

Is it not by love alone that we succeed in penetrating to the very essence of being?

Igor Stravinsky

Invention presupposes imagination but should not be confused with it.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Confusion Imagination Invention
Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

End Music Pieces Song
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

Creation Distance God Music Separate
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

Aware Conscious Himself Thinking Time Willing Work
My God, so much I like to drink Scotch that sometimes I think my name is Igor Stra-whiskey.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Alcohol Drink Favorite God Myself
An audience is an abstraction; it has no taste. It must depend on the only person who has (pardon, should have), the conductor.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Abstraction Audience Person Taste
The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Freedom Impose Oneself Precision Service
My childhood was a period of waiting for the moment when I could send everyone and everything connected with it to hell.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Childhood Connection Hell Moments Myself Period
Is it not by love alone that we succeed in penetrating to the very essence of being?
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Alone Essence Love Success
The trick is to compose what one wants to compose and to get it commissioned afterward.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Commission Oneself Trick
It’s one of nature’s way that we often feel closer to distant generations than to the generation immediately preceding us.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Feeling Generation Nature Way
Music must be listened to; it is not enough to hear it. A duck hears also.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Difference Enough Listening Music
A composer is not only an architect but also an inventor, and he should not build houses in which he cannot live.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Architect Build Himself Home Invention Live
What gives the artist real prestige is his imitators.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Artist Himself Imitation Reality
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

Artist Creation Gift Hands Observation Talent
Music is the sole domain in which man realizes the present.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Man Music Present Realization
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 STRAVINSKY

Exhaust Genius Human Myself Rhythm Willing
The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Freedom Oneself Perspective Restriction
Composers combine notes, that’s all.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Compose Note One Liner
The more controlled, limited and tormented art is, the freer it is.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Art Control Freedom Limitation
Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Beginning Eat Inspiration Work
It is my conviction that the public always shows itself more honest in its spontaneity than do those who officially set themselves up as judges of works of art.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Always Art Honesty Judgement Public Work
Art postulates communion, and the artist has an imperative need to make others share the joy which he experiences himself.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Art Artist Experience Himself Joy Share Unity
I never understood the need for a “live” audience. My music, because of its extreme quietude, would be happiest with a dead one.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Audience Death Live Music Need Performance Understand
Harpists spend 90 percent of their lives tuning their harps and 10 percent playing out of tune.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Instrument Live Music Play Silence
All you have to do is close your eyes and wait for the symbols.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Close Eyes Symbol Yourself
The one true comment on a piece of music is another piece of music.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Comment Music Pieces True

Is it not by love alone that we succeed in penetrating to the very essence of being?

Related Topics

Popular Authors

Is it not by love alone that we succeed in penetrating to the very essence of being?

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Igor Stravinsky Quotes