Quotes from Dmitri Shostakovich

Now I can't abide rudeness, even in so-called great artists. Rudeness and cruelty are the qualities I hate most (...). No, don't expect anything good from a rude man.

It's so unfair. People suffered, worked, thought. So much wisdom, so much talent. And they're forgotten as soon as they die. We must do everything possible to keep their memories alive, because we will be treated in the same way ourselves.

There should always be a harmonious combination of the senses and the intellect.

I don't see anything shameful in [gypsy songs] as opposed to, say, Prokofiev, who pretended to be enraged when he heard such music. He probably had a better musical education than I di. But at least I'm not a snob.

I live in the USSR, work actively and count naturally on the worker and peasant spectator. If I am not comprehensible to them I should be deported.

I feel eternal pain for those who were killed by Hitler, but I feel no less pain for those killed on Stalin's orders. I suffer for everyone who was tortured, shot, or starved to death.