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 STRAVINSKYWe 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.
More Igor Stravinsky Quotes
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What gives the artist real prestige is his imitators.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
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.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
I knew I had to write a Mass of my own, but a real one.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
Music is the coordination between man and time.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
A composer is not only an architect but also an inventor, and he should not build houses in which he cannot live.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
Art is the opposite of chaos. Art is organized chaos.
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 -
To be deprived of art and left alone with philosophy is to be close to Hell.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
Composition is selective improvisation.
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 -
Harpists spend 90 percent of their lives tuning their harps and 10 percent playing out of tune.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
Hurry? I have no time to hurry.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
Composers combine notes, that’s all.
IGOR STRAVINSKY -
I haven’t understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it.
IGOR STRAVINSKY