I'm a free person; I feel terribly free. They could put me in chains and I still would be free because my thoughts would be mine - and that's all I want to have.

Sometimes I think, not so much am I a pianist, but a vampire. All my life I have lived off the blood of Chopin.

We only begin to live life when we learn to accept it on its own terms.

Life is the game that must be played, this truth at least, good friends, we know; so live and laugh, nor be dismayed as one by one the phantoms go.

...no formula for success [exists] except, perhaps, an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings." "I accept life unconditionally. Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can only be felt if you don't set any condition.

Of course there is no formula for success, except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life, and what it brings

It took great courage to ask a beautiful young woman to marry me. Believe me, it is easier to play the whole Petrushka on the piano.