Arnold Schoenberg Quotations

Rests always sound well.

In Spring! In the creation of art it must be as it is in Spring!

I was never revolutionary. The only revolutionary in our time was Strauss!

There are no more geniuses, only critics.

Although our "gentle air" cannot improve the way hate and envy look, it does seem not to encourage firmness and decision. All is compromise; caution and refinement are everywhere. Everything has to "make a good impression" - whether or not it is any good: the impression is the main thing.

Composing is a slowed-down improvisation; often one cannot write fast enough to keep up with the stream of ideas.

In fact, the influence of Schoenberg may be overwhelming on his followers, but the significance of his art is to be identified with influences of a more subtle kind-not the system, but the aesthetic, of his art. I am quite conscious of the fact that my Chansons madécasses are in no way Schoenbergian, but I do not know whether I ever should have been able to write them had Schoenberg never written.

My music is not modern, it is merely badly played

Lucidity is the first purpose of color in music.

I am the slave of an internal power more powerful than my education.