Modest Mussorgsky

My music must be an artistic reproduction of human speech in all its finest shades. That is, the sounds of human speech, as the external manifestations of thought and feeling must, without exaggeration or violence, become true, accurate music.

— Modest Mussorgsky

In poetry there are two giants, rough Homer and fine Shakespere. In music likewise we have two giants, Beethoven, the thinker, and the superthinker Berlioz.

— Modest Mussorgsky

I regard the people as a great being, inspired by a single idea. This is my problem. I strove to solve it in this opera.

— Modest Mussorgsky