György Ligeti quotes

Stravinsky used Mother Goose. He was influenced by Mother Goose, indirectly, but very beautifully. (György Ligeti)
I listen to all kinds of music - new music, old music, music of my colleagues, everything.
György Ligeti
But if you go from Moscow to Budapest you think you are in Paris.
György Ligeti
Now there is no taboo; everything is allowed. But one cannot simply go back to tonality, it's not the way. We must find a way of neither going back nor continuing the avant-garde. I am in a prison: one wall is the avant-garde, the other wall is the past, and I want to escape.
György Ligeti
Yes, fractals are what I want to find in my music.
György Ligeti
I only want to give a metaphysic for my music.
György Ligeti
First of all I listen to music. I like music.
György Ligeti
I know already the music I will write. But the words? I have not yet decided.
György Ligeti
Then, after the war it was impossible to travel, after so many years of Hitler and Stalin.
György Ligeti
I write bars, for the musicians, because they have to be together.
György Ligeti
Perhaps the better word is emotional yes, I am an emotional man. (György Ligeti)
I don't use old music.
György Ligeti
But I do not want to use Hungarian verses for British people.
György Ligeti
In my piano concerto I developed this polyphony to much higher complexity.
György Ligeti
My grandfather was not a musician but he was an artist - a painter, a decorative painter.
György Ligeti
People often thought Leopold Auer was Russian because he lived in St. Petersburg so long, almost fifty years.
György Ligeti
There is a wonderful Hungarian literature, especially in lyric poetry.
György Ligeti
I lived under the Nazis and under the Communists.
György Ligeti
For the past ten years I have had no financial problems.
György Ligeti
In January 1944 I was called up by the Forced Labor Service, but I deserted on October 10, 1944.
György Ligeti
I like to stay home and listen to recordings. (György Ligeti)
I don't read such boring things. Life is too short.
György Ligeti
When I was younger I was completely without money - when I was studying in Budapest, when I was a refugee.
György Ligeti
Once, in London, the BBC asked me what was my favorite English book. I said Alice in Wonderland.
György Ligeti
New York is the dream world, the center of jazz and rock.
György Ligeti