Quotes by Igor Stravinsky

About Igor Stravinsky:

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

Igor Stravinsky

Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.

Igor Stravinsky

My music is best understood by children and animals.

Igor Stravinsky

Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven.

Igor Stravinsky

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

A good composer does not imitate; he steals.

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

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

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

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

Igor Stravinsky

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

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

Igor Stravinsky

What force is more potent than love?

Igor Stravinsky

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

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

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

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

What gives the artist real prestige is his imitators.

Igor Stravinsky

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

He was a six and a half foot scowl. (on Rachmaninov)

Igor Stravinsky

Author Bio

  • NameIgor Stravinsky
  • DescriptionRussian composer, pianist and conductor
  • AliasesIgor Fyodorovich Stravinsky; Stravinsky; Igor Strawinski; Igor Strawinsky; Igor Stravinskii
  • BornJune 17, 1882
  • DiedApril 6, 1971
  • CountryFrance; Russian Empire
  • ProfessionComposer; Choreographer; Conductor
  • WorksThe Rite Of Spring; ; Symphony In E-flat; Scherzo Fantastique
  • AwardsGrammy Lifetime Achievement Award; Léonie Sonning Music Prize