Jean Sibelius

"It is so difficult to mix with artists! You must choose business men to talk to, because artists only talk of money."

"If we understood the world, we would realize that there is a logic of harmony underlying its manifold apparent dissonances."

"If I could express the same thing with words as with music, I would, of course, use a verbal expression. Music is something autonomous and much richer. Music begins where the possibilities of language…"

"Sibelius has an acutely developed sense of identification with nature and a preoccupation with myth that at one and the same time define his unique strength and his basic limitation. These preoccupati…"

"In his work a means of escape has been found from outmoded romanticism on the one hand and from a barren objectivity on the other."

"The framework of a symphony must be so strong that it forces you to follow it, regardless of the environment and circumstances."

"Whereas most other modern composers are engaged in manufacturing cocktails of every hue and description, I offer the public cold spring water."

"Music is for me like a beautiful mosaic which God has put together. He takes all the pieces in his hand, throws them into the world, and we have to recreate the picture from the pieces."