Claude Debussy quotes - page 2

Collect impressions. Don't be in a hurry to write them down. Because that's something music can do better than painting: it can centralise variations of colour and light within a single picture a truth generally ignored, obvious as it is. (Claude Debussy)
Extreme complication is contrary to art. View quote
Claude Debussy
I wish to sing of my interior visions with the naive candour of a child. View quote
Claude Debussy
The century of airplanes has a right to its own music. View quote
Claude Debussy
People come to music to seek oblivion: is that not also a form of deception? View quote
Claude Debussy
In opera, there is always too much singing. View quote
Claude Debussy
It is necessary to abandon yourself completely, and let the music do as it will with you. View quote
Claude Debussy
I want no purely musical developments which are not called for inevitably by the text. In opera there is always too much singing. Music should be as swift and mobile as the words themselves. View quote
Claude Debussy
Collect impressions. Don't be in a hurry to write them down. View quote
Claude Debussy
Music should humbly seek to please; within these limits great beauty may perhaps be found. View quote
Claude Debussy
I confess that I am no longer thinking in musical terms, or at least not much, even though I believe with all my heart that Music remains for all time the finest means of expression we have. (Claude Debussy)
Music is a mysterious mathematical process whose elements are part of Infinity. ... There is nothing more musical than a sunset. View quote
Claude Debussy
I do not practise religion in accordance with the sacred rites. I have made mysterious Nature my religion. View quote
Claude Debussy
There's no need either for music to make people think! ... It would be enough if music could make people listen. View quote
Claude Debussy
To feel the supreme and moving beauty of the spectacle to which Nature invites her ephemeral guests! ... that is what I call prayer. View quote
Claude Debussy
When I gaze at a sunset sky and spend hours contemplating its marvelous ever-changing beauty, an extraordinary emotion overwhelms me. Nature in all its vastness is truthfully reflected in my sincere though feeble soul. View quote
Claude Debussy
Music would take over at the point at which words become powerless, with the one and only object of expressing that which nothing but music could express. View quote
Claude Debussy
There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law. I love music passionately. And because l love it, I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it. View quote
Claude Debussy
I believe the principle fault of the majority of writers and artists is having neither the will nor the courage to break with their successes, failing to seek new paths and give birth to new ideas. View quote
Claude Debussy
I wish to write down my musical dreams in a spirit of utter self-detachment. I wish to sing of my interior visions with the naïve candour of a child. No doubt, this simple musical grammar will jar on some people. It is bound to offend the partisans of deceit and artifice. I foresee that and rejoice at it. View quote
Claude Debussy
Art is the most beautiful deception of all. And although people try to incorporate the everyday events of life in it, we must hope that it will remain a deception lest it become a utilitarian thing, sad as a factory. (Claude Debussy)
I do not practise religion in accordance with the sacred rites. I have made mysterious Nature my religion. I do not believe that a man is any nearer to God for being clad in priestly garments, nor that one place in a town is better adapted to meditation than another. When I gaze at a sunset sky and spend hours contemplating its marvelous ever-changing beauty, an extraordinary emotion overwhelms me. Nature in all its vastness is truthfully reflected in my sincere though feeble soul. Around me are the trees stretching up their branches to the skies, the perfumed flowers gladdening the meadow, the gentle grass-carpetted earth, ... and my hands unconsciously assume an attitude of adoration. ... To feel the supreme and moving beauty of the spectacle to which Nature invites her ephemeral guests! ... that is what I call prayer. View quote
Claude Debussy
Music would take over at the point at which words become powerless, with the one and only object of expressing that which nothing but music could express. For this, I need a text by a poet who, resorting to discreet suggestion rather than full statement, will enable me to graft my dream upon his dream - who will give me plain human beings in a setting belonging to no particular period or country. ... Then I do not wish my music to drown the words, nor to delay the course of the action. I want no purely musical developments which are not called for inevitably by the text. In opera there is always too much singing. Music should be as swift and mobile as the words themselves. View quote
Claude Debussy
Art is the most beautiful deception of all! And although people try to incorporate the everyday events of life in it, we must hope that it will remain a deception lest it become a utilitarian thing, sad as a factory. ... Let us not disillusion anyone by bringing too much reality into the dream. View quote
Claude Debussy