To be interested in Satie one must be disinterested to begin with, accept that a sound is a sound and a man is a man, give up illusions about ideas of order, expressions of sentiment, and all the rest of our inherited aesthetic claptrap. It is not a question of Satie's relevance. He's indispensable.
(John Cage)

---

An ogival and gymnopedic musician that I used to call - I am so witty! - Esotérik Satie.
(Alphonse Allais)

---

Like Socrate, Satie had a graceless body and his look was very ordinary, but like him he also had a weighty intelligence, a rich inner world and that sense of divine that some souls host.
(Maurice Sachs)

---

Debussy often invited me to his house, and there one day I met Erik Satie, that I already knew by name. I liked him right away. He was sharp. Extremely astute and wickedly intelligent.
(Igor Stravinskij)

---

Erik est Satierik.
(Francis Picabia)

---

Satie hides behind his glasses, behind his hand, behind his farces.
(Jean Cocteau)

---

A gentle medieval musician who strayed into this century.
(Claude Debussy)

---

Some of Satie's inventions: the ninth chords with exceptional solutions; the suppression of the bar-lines; the "back to"; simplicity; his disciples.
(Pierre Boulez)