Igor Stravinsky Quotes

Quote

I haven't understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it.
Igor Stravinsky

Life, Music, Felt

Harpists spend 90 percent of their lives tuning their harps and 10 percent playing out of tune.
Igor Stravinsky

Lives, Playing, Spend

Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.
Igor Stravinsky

Art, Great, Artists

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.
Igor Stravinsky

Self, Execution, Precision

Is it not by love alone that we succeed in penetrating to the very essence of being?
Igor Stravinsky

Love, Alone, Succeed

The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music they should be taught to love it instead.
Igor Stravinsky

Love, Music, Respect

Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven.
Igor Stravinsky

Cannot, Forgiven, Sins

In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more potent than love?
Igor Stravinsky

Love, Order, Create

I am in the present. I cannot know what tomorrow will bring forth. I can know only what the truth is for me today. That is what I am called upon to serve, and I serve it in all lucidity.
Igor Stravinsky

Truth, Today, Tomorrow

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.
Igor Stravinsky

Music, Book, Living

Music is given to us with the sole purpose of establishing an order in things, including, and particularly, the coordination between man and time.
Igor Stravinsky

Music, Time, Between

My music is best understood by children and animals.
Igor Stravinsky

Music, Best, Children

The principle of the endless melody is the perpetual becoming of a music that never had any reason for starting, any more than it has any reason for ending.
Igor Stravinsky

Music, Reason, Principle

The real composer thinks about his work the whole time; he is not always conscious of this, but he is aware of it later when he suddenly knows what he will do.
Igor Stravinsky

Work, Time, Real

Money may kindle, but it cannot by itself, and for very long, burn.
Igor Stravinsky

Money, Long, May

To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.
Igor Stravinsky

Effort, Listen, Hear

A good composer does not imitate; he steals.
Igor Stravinsky

Good, Composer, Imitate

Conductors' careers are made for the most part with 'Romantic' music. 'Classic' music eliminates the conductor; we do not remember him in it.
Igor Stravinsky

Music, Romantic, Him

I am an inventor of music.
Igor Stravinsky

Music, Inventor

I know that the twelve notes in each octave and the variety of rhythm offer me opportunities that all of human genius will never exhaust.
Igor Stravinsky

Human, Genius, Rhythm

Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning.
Igor Stravinsky

Work, Beginning, Eating

Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.
Igor Stravinsky

Music, End, Long

What force is more potent than love?
Igor Stravinsky

Love, Force, Potent

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

Real, Artist, Imitators

Why is it that whenever I hear a piece of music I don't like, it's always by Villa-Lobos?
Igor Stravinsky

Music, Why, Hear

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Biography

Nationality: Russian

Born: June 17, 1882

Died: April 6, 1971

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Cite this Page: Citation

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