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Erik Satie Quotes

Éric Alfred Leslie Satie , who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. Satie was an influential artist in the late 19th- and early 20th-century Parisian avant-garde. His work was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, repetitive music, and the Theatre of the Absurd.An eccentric, Satie was introduced as a "gymnopedist" in 1887, shortly before writing his most famous compositions, the Gymnopédies. Later, he also referred to himself as a "phonometrician" , preferring this designation to that of "musician", after having been called "a clumsy but subtle technician" in a book on contemporary French composers published in 1911.In addition to his body of music, Satie left a set of writings, having contributed work for a range of publications from the dadaist 391 to the American culture chronicle Vanity Fair. Although in later life he prided himself on publishing his work under his own name, in the late 19th century he appears to have used pseudonyms such as Virginie Lebeau and François de Paule in some of his published writings. Wikipedia  

✵ 17. May 1866 – 1. July 1925
Erik Satie photo
Erik Satie: 6   quotes 6   likes

Famous Erik Satie Quotes

“I eat only white foods: eggs, sugar, grated bones, the fat of dead animals; veal, salt, coconut, chicken cooked in white water; fruit mold, rice, turnips; camphorated sausage, dough, cheese (white), cotton salad, and certain fish (skinless).”

Erik Satie

Quoted by Rollo H. Myers (1968). Erik Satie, p.135. New York: Dover.
See also Socrate for the context of this quote.
General quotes

“nothing but an icy loneliness that fills the head with emptiness and the heart with sadness.”

Erik Satie

about artist/model Suzanne Valadon at the end of their love affair
General quotes

“Study for a bust of Mr Erik Satie painted by himself, with a thought: I came into the world very young in an age that was very old.”

Erik Satie

Étude pour un buste de M. Erik SATIE peint par lui-même, avec une pensée: je suis venu au monde très jeune dans un temps très vieux.
Written to accompany a self-portrait caricature drawn by himself - see image
General quotes

“I took to my room and let small things evolve slowly.”

Erik Satie

The man in a velvet suit Lucy Daniel Telegraph Review January 25 2014.
General quotes

“On the first movement of Claude Debussy's La Mer, From Dawn to Noon: " Ah, my dear friend, there's one particular moment between half past ten and a quarter to eleven that I found stunning!" (with slight variations in phrasing and translation)”

Erik Satie

Mary McAuliffe: Twilight of the Belle Epoque (2014), p. 111.
General quotes

“Provide yourself with shrewdness.”

Erik Satie

Munissez-vous de clairvoyance.
Piano works

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