Michael Tippett Quotations

This is something special. You can attempt to have a kind of non-living music.

The nearest figure to myself would be Shakespeare.

Nature has different times.

My true function within a society which embraces all of us is to continue an age-old tradition. This tradition is to create images from the depths of the imagination and to give them form, whether visual, intellectual or musical.

Beethoven suppressed everything, his personal life disappeared until he was locked inside. That is a figure quite extreme.

When we use terms we get confused, yet we have no other way.

Public notice does not necessarily accord with internal fulfilment.

Shakespeare fascinated me. He hardly ever left the country. His imagination was worldwide though reading.

Music is a performance and needs the audience.

Shiva danced the world into existence... that's a very nice thought.