Sergei Prokofiev

“There are still so many beautiful things to be said in C major.”

“Formalism is music that people don't understand at first hearing.”

“I want nothing better, more flexible or more complete than the sonata form, which contains everything necessary for my structural purposes.”

“My chief virtue, or if you like, my chief vice, is a love of five-part harmony. It is boredom that leads me to this vice.”

“In my view, the composer, just as the poet, the sculptor or the painter, is in duty bound to serve Man, the people.”

“The time is past when music was written for a handful of aesthetes. Today, vast crowds of people have come face to face with serious music and are waiting to hear new works.”

“I have never doubted the importance of melody. I like melody very much, and I consider it the most important element in music.”

“Of course I have used dissonance in my time, but there has been too much dissonance. Bach used dissonance as good salt for his music. Others applied pepper, seasoned the dishes more and more highly, till all healthy appetites were sick and tired of it.”

“I strenuously object to the very word 'grotesque' which has become hackneyed to the point of nausea... I would prefer my music to be described as 'Scherzo-ish' in quality, or else by three words describing the various degrees of the Scherzo - whimsicality, laughter, mockery.”

“What is exhilarating in bad taste is the aristocratic pleasure of giving offense.”

“Music, for me, is a creative life process, a way of being, and I am not exaggerating when I say that I live and breathe music.”