Toru Takemitsu

“Music is either sound or silence. As long as I live I shall choose sound.”

“I want to create a sound as intense as silence.”

“My music is like a garden, and I am the gardener.”

“What is composed remains, mute, in the score. It is the performance that brings the music to life, and for that reason the same piece can be said to have many different lives.”

“In my music, the concept of 'ma' is very important. It's the space between the notes, the silence that gives the notes their meaning.”

“The world is filled with sound. It is not necessary to create it. We must find the wonder in sound which already exists.”

“I am not interested in 'Japanese' music, but in music that is Japanese.”

“Tradition is not a thing of the past. It is a living thing that is passed down to us.”

“For me, to compose is to dream.”

“A single sound can be a world.”

“The sea is my eternal source of inspiration.”