If he'd been making shell-cases during the war it might have been better for music. Maurice Ravel More Quotes by Maurice Ravel More Quotes From Maurice Ravel The only love affair I have ever had was with music. Maurice Ravel affairinspiringlove Music, I feel, must be emotional first and intellectual second. Maurice Ravel emotionalintellectualfirsts I did my work slowly, drop by drop. I tore it out of me by pieces. Maurice Ravel pieces We should always remember that sensitiveness and emotion constitute the real content of a work of art Maurice Ravel emotionrealart I do not ask for my music to be interpreted, but only for it to be played. Maurice Ravel asks Why become a second-rate Ravel when you're already a first-rate Gershwin? Maurice Ravel ravelratefirsts I begin by considering an effect. Maurice Ravel consideringeffects Remember that I wrote a pavane for a dead princess, and not a dead pavane for a princess! Maurice Ravel princessremember You might lose your spontaneity and, instead of composing first-rate Gershwin, end up with second rate Ravel. Maurice Ravel ravelmightfirsts To George Gershwin, on refusinghim as a pupil: You would only lose the spontaneous quality of your melody, and end by writing bad Ravel. Maurice Ravel ravelqualitywriting In fact, the influence of Schoenberg may be overwhelming on his followers, but the significance of his art is to be identified with influences of a more subtle kind - not the system, but the aesthetic, of his art. I am quite conscious of the fact that my Chansons madécasses are in no way Schoenbergian, but I do not know whether I ever should have been able to write them had Schoenberg never written. Maurice Ravel should-havewritingart Tell me that not everything I wrote was bad. Maurice Ravel My intention here is to make it clear that not a single cell of my composition, here in regard to The Raven, is found by chance or intuition, that the composition moved towards perfection with the precision and inevitability of a mathematical equation. Maurice Ravel mathematical-equationsravenscells For Debussy the musician and the man I have had profound admiration, but by nature I'm different from him. I think I have always personally followed a direction opposed to that of the symbolism of Debussy. Maurice Ravel symbolismmenthinking Does it not occur to people that I might be artificial by nature? Maurice Ravel doemightpeople I am not one of the great composers. All the great have produced enormously. There is everything in their work - the best and the worst, but there is always quantity. But I have written relatively little. Maurice Ravel composerworstlittles