I probably belong to a type of composer of songs who keeps thinking about melody... I am old fashioned.

- Toru Takemitsu

Although I am basically self taught, I consider Debussy my teacher - the most important elements are colour, light and shadow.

- Toru Takemitsu

I am a gardener of infinite time.

- Toru Takemitsu

Music should be able to invoke the natural emotions in all human beings. Music is not notes fixed on apiece of paper.

- Toru Takemitsu

I always want to write erotic music... Not only about the love between men and women, but in a much more universal sense - about the sensuality of th…

- Toru Takemitsu

Music is a form of prayer.

- Toru Takemitsu

The art music of the West has developed through out its history by means of individual geniuses, and out of the soil supporting them; non-Western mus…

- Toru Takemitsu

Composition gives proper meaning to the natural streams of sound that penetrate the world.

- Toru Takemitsu

My teachers are Duke Ellington and nature.

- Toru Takemitsu