A continued his studies with Jean Absil, and won the Belgian Prix de Rome in 1945 for his cantata La vague et le sillon.
In 1957 he won second prize in the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition and his Piano Concerto no.1 was used as a test piece in the 1964 session of the same contest.
Quinet's music is very similar in style to Hindemith and is distinguished by formal clarity and the absence of lyrical effusion.
His earlier works were more closely related to Absil's influence, but by the early 1950s his work began to display a more individual style as in Three Orchestral Pieces (1951), which is more reminiscent of French music with orchestration akin to Bartók.
For example, his orchestral Variations are cast as a Baroque suite, and the ballet La nef des fous is built as a symphony with a rapid principal theme alternating with slow, expressive passages.