»There is nothing more difficult than talking about music.«
»Music for me is like people – only really knowable over time.«
»No, music is not an instrument of physical pleasure. Music is one of the most delicate products of the human spirit. In the recesses of his intelligence, mankind possesses a particularly intimate sense, the aesthetic sense, by means of which he perceives art: music is one of the means of setting this sense in vibration. Behind the sense of hearing, with its marvellous capacity to analyse sounds, to distinguish the differences in their intensities, timbres and qualities, there lies, inside the complexities of the brain, a mysterious sense that responds to something quite different.«
»Music can avoid being complicated: but it can only be relatively simple since it is, by its very nature, a complex art. A melody is not a work, any more than a line is a poem. Music cannot really be simple and clear for everyone without renouncing most of its resources; in which case it removes any interest from its harmony, rhythm and instrumentation so as not to distract the listener’s fragile attention from the melodic line. It even takes care not to make this line too unconventional. The cost is that it descends into the realm of the vulgar; it is categorised as melodic, scenic, easy to understand, and the daughter of inspiration. But suppose it is reluctant to clip its wings? Then it is learned music, and the composer is a pedant who does not know how to conceal his learning – he is a pretentious nincompoop, an algebraist, a chemist, a what you will.«