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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

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Igor Stravinsky
Age: 88 †
Born: 1882
Born: June 17
Died: 1971
Died: April 6
Composer
Conductor
Musician
Pianist
omniorca
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky
Stravinsky
Igor Strawinski
Igor Strawinsky
Igor Stravinskii
Igor Feodorovich Stravinsky
Jgor Strawinsky
Igor Strawinskij
Igor Stravinski
Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky
I. Strawinsky
Learned
Composer
Mistake
Assumption
Wisdom
Throughout
Knowledge
Pursuit
Inspirational
False
Pursuits
Life
Mistakes
Chiefly
Failure
Assumptions
Creativity
Exposure

More quotes by Igor Stravinsky

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I cannot now evaluate the events that, at the end of those thirty years, made me discover the necessity of religious belief. I was not reasoned into my disposition. Though I admire the structured thought of theology, it is to religion no more than counterpoint exercises are to music.
Igor Stravinsky
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My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self of the chains that shackle the spirit.
Igor Stravinsky
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Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.
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Art postulates communion, and the artist has an imperative need to make others share the joy which he experiences himself.
Igor Stravinsky
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The true creator may be recognized by his ability always to find about him, in the commonest and humblest thing, items worthy of note.
Igor Stravinsky
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What I cannot follow are the manic-depressive fluctuations from total control to no control, from the serialization of all elements to chance.
Igor Stravinsky
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I take no pride in my artistic talents they are God-given and I see absolutely no reason to become puffed up over something that one has received.
Igor Stravinsky
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A good composer does not imitate he steals.
Igor Stravinsky
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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
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Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning.
Igor Stravinsky
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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
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An artist is like a pig snouting truffles.
Igor Stravinsky
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Nothing is likely about masterpieces, least of all whether there will be any.
Igor Stravinsky
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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
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I am an inventor of music.
Igor Stravinsky
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A plague on eminence! I hardly dare cross the street any more 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
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Old age is a time of humiliations, the most disagreeable of which, for me, is that I cannot work long at sustained high pressure with no leaks in concentration.
Igor Stravinsky
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We can neither put back the clock nor slow down our forward speed, and as we are already flying pilotless, on instrument controls, it is even too late to ask where we are going.
Igor Stravinsky
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Music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all. Music expresses itself.
Igor Stravinsky
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To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.
Igor Stravinsky