- [discussing Stravinsky's sexuality]
- Sergei Diaghilev: I've always had my suspicions about him: he makes Proust look like a docker.
- Igor Stravinsky: [during a rehearsal with the orchestra, the musicians become uncomfortable with the stamping rhythms of Stravinsky's score, mess up and burst out laughing] What's so funny? Huh? Huh? That is *precisely* what I wrote!
- [marches over to the piano and pounds out the discordant stamping; everyone stares at Igor as if he's mad]
- Igor Stravinsky: You understand? Huh? *I* write, you PLAY!
- Pierre Monteux: [trying to diffuse the tension] Gentlemen, if we might pick it up from the bar before 104?
- [orchestra resumes rehearsing]
- Sergei Diaghilev: [Diaghilev has just listened to Stravinsky pounding the entire score out on a piano] Don't you think, my dear, there's just a little too much noise?
- Igor Stravinsky: Where, exactly?
- Sergei Diaghilev: Ah well, perhaps from start to finish?