I used to think there was something dirty about being paid for something which is a sacred thing to do. I can't disconnect the act of writing music from the act of prayer. If anyone tries to stop me working,… — John Tavener Copy Share Image
I don't think Beethoven expresses religious truth. He expresses a human truth. — John Tavener Copy Share Image
When I talk of primordial innocence, I hear it in Sufi music with the nay flute. I see it in Coptic icons, in most… — John Tavener Copy Share Image
I've got great joy from rediscovering Western music. I love Schumann and Chopin, and those amazing symphonies of Bruckner. — John Tavener Copy Share Image
The path I follow is still an Orthodox path. You have to follow a path; otherwise, it becomes a little bit new-age, a bit… — John Tavener Copy Share Image
The thing I regret most about my life are those inane photos of me with icons. They used to come down here and dress… — John Tavener Copy Share Image
We seem to have lost our contact with the primordial: the idea of - call it divine revelation as opposed to something that's learned… — John Tavener Copy Share Image
I think I've been very lucky all my life because the writing and the faith seem to go together. — John Tavener Copy Share Image
My consultant keeps telling me sudden death could come at any moment. — John Tavener Copy Share Image
Every woman I have known has actually deepened my spiritual awareness. Even if I have been a selfish man and treated them badly... There… — John Tavener Copy Share Image
The music is something outside myself that's also inside myself... Music and a sense of another presence always went hand in hand. Even when… — John Tavener Copy Share Image
In his late quartets, Beethoven introduces an element that shouldn't be there, that should be left for meditation, though I love them. I can… — John Tavener Copy Share Image
I think there will always be a possibility that God doesn't exist because He is infinitude and into that infinitude must come that possibility. — John Tavener Copy Share Image
I've written a very long piece of music recently, the 'Veil of the Temple,' which lasts about seven hours. It's really a kind of… — John Tavener Copy Share Image
