The further one separates himself from the precepts of the Christian Church, the further one distances himself from the truth. Only God can create. I make music from music.

Mediocrity borrows, genius steals.

Invention presupposes imagination but should not be confused with it.

Art is the opposite of chaos. Art is organized chaos.

A cultural snob is someone who claims to be familiar with the incomprehensible.

My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self of the chains that shackle the spirit.

Old age is a time of humiliations, the most disagreeable of which, for me, is that I cannot work long at sustained high pressure with no leaks in concentration.