36 Quotes by Arnold Schoenberg

If it is art, it is not for all, and if it is for all, it is not art.

The serious artist should stop flailing his arms in a bid for attention, and instead withdraw into a principled solitude.

Whether one calls oneself conservative or revolutionary, whether one composes in a conventional or progressive manner, whether one tries to imitate old styles or is destined to express new ideas -- whether one is a good composer or not -- one must be convinced of the infallibility of one's own fantasy and one must believe in one's own inspiration. ("Composition with Twelve Tones")

[If] it were possible to watch composing in the same way that one can watch painting, if composers could have _ateliers_ as did painters, then it would be clear how superfluous the music theorist is and how he is just as harmful as the art academies.

Rests always sound well.

In Spring! In the creation of art it must be as it is in Spring!

I was never revolutionary. The only revolutionary in our time was Strauss!

There are no more geniuses, only critics.

Although our "gentle air" cannot improve the way hate and envy look, it does seem not to encourage firmness and decision. All is compromise; caution and refinement are everywhere. Everything has to "make a good impression" - whether or not it is any good: the impression is the main thing.