Treasures are no longer to be got by instrumental art.

Composing gives me great pleasure... there is nothing that surpasses the joy of creation, if only because through it one wins hours of self-forgetfulness, when one lives in a world of sound.

I wish to lead a life free from care, and I see that I shall be unhappy if I cannot always work at my art.

I do not want horses or diamonds - I am happy in possessing you.

The tea is ice-cold, the room grows colder and colder, but I grow warmer and warmer.

How often have I actually discovered in myself that enthusiasm raises the artist above himself, how in an ordinary mood one would not have been able to accomplish many of the things for which enthusiasm lends one everything, energy, fire.

Treasures are no longer to be got by instrumental art.