Quotes by Benjamin Britten

“The old idea of a composer suddenly having a terrific idea and sitting up all night to write it is nonsense. Nighttime is for sleeping.”

“These two are not two Love has made them one Amo Ergo Sum! And by its mystery Each is no less but more.”

“The restaurant is like a theatre: we do two shows a day and when you are doing Shakespeare you dont want to throw in something out of Walt Disney.”

“[Music has] the beauty of disappointment & never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature, & everlasting beauty of monotony.”

“Composing is like driving down a foggy road toward a house. Slowly you see more details of the house-the color of the slates and bricks, the shape of the windows. The notes are the bricks and the mortar of the house.”

It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature and everlasting beauty of monotony.

I am an arrogant and impatient listener but in the case of a few composers a very few when I hear a work I do not like I am convinced that it is my own fault. Verdi is one of those composers.