Pierre Boulez

“Research is like hunger…

These forces I feel within me and that emanate from me—strictly speaking, I do not embody these forces in the literal sense of embodiment; I merely bring them to light. I strive to make these forces real through my actions, to give them shape.

And I am all too familiar with the criticism that I scatter my energies, that all these diverse activities are merely distractions from the essential, from composing. There is a Portuguese proverb, which Claudel prefaced his ‘Silk Shoe’ with, and it goes: ‘God writes straight with crooked lines.’ I have no intention of comparing myself to God, let alone to the Crucified—Nietzsche save me from that! And yet, this is a proverb with which I gladly identify. This peculiar geometry of the straight achieved through curves has sometimes perhaps attracted me too much; but I cannot imagine an existence without such diversions, without such a risk of multifacetedness; however, it is always understood that amidst the variety of activities, the course remains steadfast and the sharpness of vision is not diluted…”