“There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law. I love music passionately. And because l love it, I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it.”

Quoted in An Encyclopedia of Quotations About Music (1981) by Nat Shapiro, p. 268
Unsourced variant: There is no theory. You have only to listen. Fantasy is the law.
Context: There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law. I love music passionately. And because l love it, I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it. It is a free art gushing forth — an open-air art, boundless as the elements, the wind, the sky, the sea. It must never be shut in and become an academic art.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law. I love music passionately. And because l love it, I t…" by Claude Debussy?
Claude Debussy photo
Claude Debussy 34
French composer 1862–1918

Related quotes

Bryan Lee O'Malley photo
Hans Kelsen photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Prevale photo

“I love simplicity, I like people who know how to listen to music with their heart, feel the smells of life, capture their soul. Because there is truth there, there is sweetness... there is still love.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Amo la semplicità, mi piacciono le persone che sanno ascoltare musica con il cuore, sentire gli odori della vita, catturarne l'anima. Perché lì c'è verità, c'è dolcezza... lì c'è ancora amore.
Source: prevale.net

Lady Gaga photo
Lila Downs photo

“I think that I have influenced several generations of performers in Mexico. I’m proud of that because it isn’t easy in these scenes. But then it is easy because it’s what you love to do, and it’s your passion. Even in your down times, you are always accompanied by your music.”

Lila Downs (1968) Mexican American singer-songwriter

On being a folk musician in “Lila Downs Explores Mexican Heritage Through the Pepper in New LP, ‘Al Chile’” https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-latin/lila-downs-new-lp-al-chile-interview-841209/ in Rolling Stone (29 May 2019)
Music and culture

Norman Mailer photo

“I love the idea of a left conservative because it gets rid of political cant. We're stifling in it.”

Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film maker, actor and political candidate

TIME interview (1991)
Context: I love the idea of a left conservative because it gets rid of political cant. We're stifling in it. One of the diseases of the right is self-righteousness. I do believe that America's deepest political sickness is that it is a self-righteous nation.
One of the diseases of the left is political correctness. If you're out of power for too long, then you just get worse and worse about how important your own ideas are.

Nick Hornby photo
E.M. Forster photo
Prevale photo

“Only those who listen to music with the heart can experience the vibrations of love.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Solo chi ascolta musica col cuore riesce a provare le vibrazioni dell'amore.
Source: prevale.net

Related topics