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

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

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