Top 22 Igor Stravinsky Quotes

Words matter. These are the best Igor Stravinsky Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.

The trouble with music appreciation in general is that

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
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
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
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
Why is it that whenever I hear a piece of music I don’t like, it’s always by Villa-Lobos?
Igor Stravinsky
Is it not by love alone that we succeed in penetrating to the very essence of being?
Igor Stravinsky
Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven.
Igor Stravinsky
Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.
Igor Stravinsky
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
Money may kindle, but it cannot by itself, and for very long, burn.
Igor Stravinsky
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
Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning.
Igor Stravinsky
I haven’t understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it.
Igor Stravinsky
Harpists spend 90 percent of their lives tuning their harps and 10 percent playing out of tune.
Igor Stravinsky
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
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
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
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
A good composer does not imitate; he steals.
Igor Stravinsky
What force is more potent than love?
Igor Stravinsky
Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.
Igor Stravinsky
To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.
Igor Stravinsky