He did not write about this war and that revolution, but about war and — Dmitri Shostakovich

"If they cut off both hands, I will compose music anyway holding the pen in my teeth."

"I always try to make myself as widely understood as possible, and if I dont succeed I consider its my own fault."

"A creative artist works on his next composition because he is not satisfied with his previous one. When he loses a critical attitude toward his own work, he ceases to be an artist."

"What can be considered human emotions? Surely not only lyricism, sadness, tragedy? Doesnt laughter also have a claim to that lofty title? I want to fight for the legitimate right of laughter in "serious" music."

"A great piece of music is beautiful regardless of how it is performed. Any prelude or fugue of Bach can be played at any tempo, with or without rhythmic nuances, and it will still be great music. Thats how music should be written, so that no-one, no matter how philistine, can ruin it."

"I live in the USSR, work actively and count naturally on the worker and peasant spectator. If I am not comprehensible to them I should be deported."