The Lives of the Great Composers Quotes

“The chain-smoking Debussy was a sybarite, a sensualist, an ironist, and not the
most pleasant of men. It followed that he would be very choosy about his friends.

Marcel Proust admired him, wanted to know him better, and once even cornered
him and drove him home in his carriage. The meeting between the two great
exemplars of sensibilité was not happy. Proust complained that Debussy did not
listen to him.

Debussy thought Proust was "long-winded and a bit of the concierge."
Nevertheless Proust, always the snob, persisted, and asked Debussy to a
party he wanted to give in his honor. Debussy refused to attend. "I know I am a
bear, I much prefer that we see each other again in a cafe. Don't hold it against
me. I was born that way.”
― Harold C. Schonberg, The Lives of the Great Composers