Every piece of music is a form of personal expression for its creator...If a work doesnt express the composers own personal point of view, his own ideas, then it doesnt, in my opinion, even deserve to be born. — Dmitri Shostakovich Copy Share Image
A great piece of music is beautiful regardless of how it is performed. — Dmitri Shostakovich Copy Share Image
When a man is in despair, it means that he still believes in something. — Dmitri Shostakovich Copy Share Image
It's about the people, who have stopped believing because the cup of evil has run over. — Dmitri Shostakovich Copy Share Image
I don't know what will become of this piece. Our brave critics will no doubt charge me with imitating Ravel's Bolero. Too bad -… — Dmitri Shostakovich Copy Share Image
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… — Dmitri Shostakovich Copy Share Image
I always try to make myself as widely understood as possible; and if I don't succeed, I consider it my own fault. — Dmitri Shostakovich Copy Share Image
Many consider that Shostakovich is the greatest 20th-century composer. In his 15 symphonies, 15 quartets, and in other works he demonstrated mastery of the… — Dmitri Shostakovich Copy Share Image
I live in the USSR, work actively and count naturally on the worker and peasant spectator. If I am not comprehensible to them I… — Dmitri Shostakovich Copy Share Image
Music is good, not evil. Poetry is good, not evil. Primitive, but oh, so true! — Dmitri Shostakovich Copy Share Image
In the long run, any words about music are less important than the music. — Dmitri Shostakovich Copy Share Image
Real music is always revolutionary, for it cements the ranks of the people; it arouses them and leads them onward. — Dmitri Shostakovich Copy Share Image
The most uninteresting part of the biography of a composer is his childhood. All those preludes are the same and the reader hurries on… — Dmitri Shostakovich Copy Share Image
The real geniuses know where their writing has to be good and where they can get away with some mediocrity. — Dmitri Shostakovich Copy Share Image
What you have in your head, put down on paper. The head is a fragile vessel. — Dmitri Shostakovich Copy Share Image
We should think more about it, and accustom ourselves to the thought of death. We can't allow the fear of death to creep up… — Dmitri Shostakovich Copy Share Image
