22 inspiring composer quotes

Classical composers are sometimes just as good at quotes as they are at music. Take a look at these amazing, inspirational quotes from some of the greatest composers of all time.

1. Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy: "Works of art make rules; rules do not make works of art."
2. Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein: "To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time."
3. Bela Bartok

Bela Bartok: "Competitions are for horses, not artists."
4. Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt: "Mournful and yet grand is the destiny of the artist."
5. Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler: "I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way."
6. Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky: "Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal."
7. Edward Elgar

Edward Elgar: "I always said God was against art and I still believe it."
8. Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms: "Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind."
9. Joseph Haydn

Joseph Haydn: "There was no one near to confuse me, so I was forced to become original."
10. Georges Bizet

George Bizet: "As a musician I tell you that if you were to suppress adultery, fanaticism, crime, evil, the supernatural, there would no longer be the means for writing one note."
11. Johann Sebastian Bach

J.S. Bach: "I was obliged to be industrious. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well."
12. Erik Satie

Erik Satie: "The musician is perhaps the most modest of animals, but he is also the proudest."
13. Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann: "To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist."
14. Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Shostakovich: "A creative artist works on his next composition because he was not satisfied with his previous one."
15. Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss: "I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer."
16. John Cage

John Cage: "I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
17. Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen: "I'm an adventurer. I like invention, I like discovery."
18. Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten: "The old idea of a composer suddenly having a terrific idea and sitting up all night to write it is nonsense. Nighttime is for sleeping."
19. Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Puccini: "Inspiration is an awakening, a quickening of all man's faculties, and it is manifested in all high artistic achievements."
20. Malcolm Arnold

Malcolm Arnold: "Music is the social act of communication among people, a gesture of friendship, the strongest there is."
21. Maurice Ravel

Maurice Ravel: "The only love affair I have ever had was with music."
22. Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner: "Imagination creates reality."