Quotes by Toru Takemitsu

• I always want to write erotic music... Not only about the love between men and women, but in a much more universal sense - about the sensuality of the mechanism of the universe... about life.
• The art music of the West has developed through out its history by means of individual geniuses, and out of the soil supporting them; non-Western musicians were born, and grew like the grasses of the field.
• Music should be able to invoke the natural emotions in all human beings. Music is not notes fixed on apiece of paper.
• I probably belong to a type of composer of songs who keeps thinking about melody... I am old fashioned.
• Composition gives proper meaning to the natural streams of sound that penetrate the world.
• Although I am basically self taught, I consider Debussy my teacher - the most important elements are colour, light and shadow.
• Music is a form of prayer.