Hanns Eisler

“I don't give a damn about 'pure' music. Music is not an end in itself.”

“Solidarity is the tenderness of the peoples.”

“Modern music is as dangerous as narcotics.”

“Beauty, in our age, is an absurdity.”

“I have always felt that the histories of the composers are not very interesting, except to specialists. I have therefore tried to make the history of my music as interesting as possible.”

“He who is only a musician is no musician.”

“What is the point of composing, if not to change the world?”

“Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.”

“A composer in a capitalist society is a man who is useless, and therefore he is a man who is admired.”

“He who expects an aesthetic experience from a work of art is a fool.”