"What can be considered human emotions? Surely not only lyricism, sadness, tragedy? Doesn't laughter also have a claim to that lofty title? I want to fight for the legitimate right of laughter in serious music."

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Source : "Sovetskoye Iskusstvo", quoted in "Shostakovich: A Life", transl. by Laurel Fay (2000) p. 77, November 5, 1934.

Dmitri Shostakovich

#Laughter Quotes #Sadness Quotes #Fighting Quotes