122 Quotes by Igor Stravinsky

Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.

The true creator may be recognized by his ability always to find about him, in the commonest and humblest thing, items worthy of note.

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

Art is the opposite of chaos. Art is organized chaos.

My God, so much I like to drink Scotch that sometimes I think my name is Igor Stra-whiskey.

I was...attacked for being a pasticheur, chided for composing "simple" music, blamed for deserting "modernism," accused of renouncing my "true Russian heritage." People who had never heard of, or cared about, the originals cried "sacrilege": "The classics are ours. Leave the classics alone." To them all my answer was and is the same: You "respect," but I love.

One has a nose. The nose scents and it chooses. An artist is simply a kind of pig snouting truffles.

What I cannot follow are the manic-depressive fluctuations from total control to no control, from the serialization of all elements to chance.

All music is nothing more than a succession of impulses that converge towards a definite point of repose.