Pierre Boulez
Quotations

"Music is . . . a labyrinth with no beginning and no end, full of new paths to discover, where mystery remains eternal."

 

"I think that music should be magic and collective hysteria."

 

"Anyone who has not felt -- I do not say understand -- but felt the necessity of the dodecaphonic language is useless. For everything he writes will fall short of the imperatives of his time."

 

"More and more I find that in order to create effectively one has to consider delirium and, yes, organize it"

 

"History as it is made by great composers is not a history of conservation but of destruction -- even while cherishing what is being destroyed."

 

"I have no confidence in the imagination of performers. The performer's head is full of formulas drawn from the music he plays. If he had the necessary invention, he would be a composer himself."