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

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

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.