Never pay any attention to what critics say…Remember, a statue has never been set up in honour of a critic! - Jean Sibelius

Sibelius is unquestionably a leader in the front rank of symphonic composers. He has got out of the ruts worn by his predecessors far more completely than Brahms got away from Beethoven, or even Richard Strauss from Wagner. If someone would only burn Finlandia he would come to our young people as an entirely original inventor of a new art form and a new harmony technique.

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

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 end. That is why I write music.