»We want a simpler and more melodic style for music, a simple, less complicated emotional state, and dissonance again relegated to its proper place as one element of music […] I think we have gone as far as we are likely to go in the direction of size, or dissonance, or complexity of music. Music, in other words, has definitely reached and passed the greatest degree of discord and complexity that can be attained in practice. I want nothing better, more flexible or more complete than the sonata form, which contains everything necessary for my structural purposes.«
»Ich liebe die Melodie, halte sie für das wichtigste Element in der Musik und arbeite viele Jahre lang an meinen Werken, um ihre Qualitäten zu verbessern.«