People knew about Babi Yar before Yevtushenko's poem, but they were silent. And when they read the poem, the silence was broken. Art destroys silence.

When a man is in despair, it means that he still believes in something.

Real music is always revolutionary, for it cements the ranks of the people; it arouses them and leads them onward.

If they cut off both hands, I will compose music anyway holding the pen in my teeth.

I write music, it’s performed. After all, my music says it all. It doesn’t need historical and hysterical commentaries. In the long run, any words about music are less important than the music.

A creative artist works on his next composition because he was not satisfied with his previous one.

In the long run, any words about music are less important than the music.

What you have in your head, put down on paper. The head is a fragile vessel.

I feel eternal pain for those who were killed by Hitler, but I feel no less pain for those killed on Stalin's orders. I suffer for everyone who was tortured, shot, or starved to death.

It's about the people, who have stopped believing because the cup of evil has run over.

The most uninteresting part of the biography of a composer is his childhood. All those preludes are the same and the reader hurries on to the fugue.

Have the courage that you will trample over your I'll struggles of the past till all is settled for your celebrations. You will be victorious in the face of difficulties if only give are courageous!

I loved the flowers that die, I loved the charm of the sky.

I am not an emotional type of guy. But I follow my emotions more than my logic.

I trust you to find the good in me, but the bad I must be sure you don't overlook.

Rely on the teaching, not on the person; Rely on the meaning, not on the words; Rely on the definitive meaning, not on the provisional; Rely on your wisdom mind, not on your ordinary mind.

There is always a risk to follow your bliss, a price to pursue your passion.

Thus, a godly man wonders at his cross that it is not more, a wicked man wonders his cross is so much.

You can buy [John McCain's] book, but in a week and a half, he'll have another.

I'm not sure that Van Gogh got up in the morning and looked at the crows and the bizarre clouds and went damn that's a good painting, you know? No, he considered shooting himself, and one day he did.

He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.