In 1928, Ravel delivered a lecture in Houston Texas. He mentioned the influence of Satie:

Another significant influence – less than unique and derived in part from Chabrier – is that of Satie, who had a notable effect on Debussy, on myself and, to tell the truth, on the majority of modern French composers. Satie possessed an extremely alert intelligence, keyed to inventiveness. He was a great experimenter; his experiments did not perhaps arrive at the stage of development, or realization, reached by Liszt, but both in number and in significance they have been of inestimable value. Satie pointed the way with simplicity and ingenuity; but as soon as another musician followed his lead, Satie immediately changed his own direction and then, without hesitation, opened a fresh way to new fields of experiment. Thus he inspired many tendencies on progressive thought. While he himself never perhaps completely elaborated a single work of art from his own discoveries, we have today, nevertheless, many a work which would not have existed had Satie not lived.

B. James, Ravel: his life and times, New York, Midas Books, 1983, p. 18.