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

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

Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.
Igor Stravinsky

Art, Great, Artists

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

Love, Alone, Succeed

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

Lives, Playing, Spend

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

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

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

Love, Order, Create

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

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

A plague on eminence! I hardly dare cross the street anymore without a convoy, and I am stared at wherever I go like an idiot member of a royal family or an animal in a zoo; and zoo animals have been known to die from stares.
Igor Stravinsky

Family, Die, Idiot

I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.
Igor Stravinsky

Life, Knowledge, Wisdom

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

I was born out of due time in the sense that by temperament and talent I should have been more suited for the life of a small Bach, living in anonymity and composing regularly for an established service and for God.
Igor Stravinsky

Life, Time, God

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

Work, Beginning, Eating

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

Money, Long, May

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.
Igor Stravinsky

Music, God, Greatest

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Biography

Nationality: Russian

Born: June 17, 1882

Died: April 6, 1971

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