122 Quotes by Igor Stravinsky

The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.

The Church knew what the psalmist knew: Music praises God. Music is well or better able to praise him than the building of the church and all its decoration; it is the Church’s greatest ornament.

The perfection of performance has escalated to the extent that the music itself is threatened with relegation.

Composers combine notes, that’s all.

It’s one of nature’s way that we often feel closer to distant generations than to the generation immediately preceding us.

Music’s exclusive function is to structure the flow of time and keep order in it.

The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one.

What gives the artist real prestige is his imitators...

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.