“My music is best understood by children and animals.”

Revolution means turning the wheel.

The true creator may be recognized by his ability always to find about him, in the commonest and humblest thing, items worthy of note.

Music is given to us with the sole purpose of establishing an order in things, including, and particularly, the coordination between man and time.

What I cannot follow are the manic-depressive fluctuations from total control to no control, from the serialization of all elements to chance.

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.

We can neither put back the clock nor slow down our forward speed, and as we are already flying pilotless, on instrument controls, it is even too late to ask where we are going.

Old age is a time of humiliations, the most disagreeable of which, for me, is that I cannot work long at sustained high pressure with no leaks in concentration.

To be deprived of art and left alone with philosophy is to be close to Hell.

Silence, which will save from shame, will also deprive me of fame.

Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.

My childhood was a period of waiting for the moment when I could send everyone and everything connected with it to hell.

A good composer does not imitate; he steals.

I had another dream the other day about music critics. They were small and rodent-like with padlocked ears, as if they had stepped out of a painting by Goya.

Nothing is likely about masterpieces, least of all whether there will be any.

I haven’t understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it.

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.

To not move around, observe, and analyze, in order to make the best decisions possible, was to fail as a leader and fail the team.

The best friend on earth of man is the tree: When we use the tree respectfully and economically, we have one of the greatest resources of the earth.

When all are guilty, no one is; confessions of collective guilt are the best possible safeguard against the discovery of culprits, and the very magnitude of the crime the best excuse for doing nothing.

The best thing about it is you’re showing kids that no matter where you grow up, what race you are, that you can achieve your dream.

I just try to be the best Patrick Mahomes I can be.

Never change who you are, and be the best you can be.

Surround yourself with people who believe in your dreams, encourage your ideas, support your ambitions, and bring out the best in you.

For me, my aim is to just be as good as possible. If people do look up at me I have to set the best example I can.