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A celebrity by then, he kept up with the work of younger composers, found Stravinsky "the most wonderful orchestral craftsman of our age," with an "instinctive genius for color and rhythm." But, he added, "when he is old he will be insupportable—that is, he will be unable to tolerate any music." During World War I, Debussy became ill with cancer. But he composed until a year before he died, in the spring of 1918—because, explained France's greatest composer in a letter, "Claude Debussy, writing no more music, has no longer any reason to exist. They never taught me anything but music."