“At one point, he [Ravel] wound up a speech with the words: ‘Il faut toujours être de mauvaise foi en art [In art, you’ve got to be dishonest].’ Terrified and uncomprehending, I replied, with bated breath: ‘Oui, maître.’ Since then I have often thought of this statement, and it seems to me to be the whole explanation of art.”
David Ponsonby, unpublished manuscript (cited in Tony Scotland, Lennox and Freda)