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 will yield to popular demands only insofar as they do not betray my own convictions.

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.

My health may be better preserved if I exert myself less, but in the end doesn't each person give his life for his calling?

You appear in the Novelletten in every possible circumstance, in every irresistible form... They could only be written by one who knows such eyes as yours and has touched such lips as yours.

There is nothing greater than the joy of composing something oneself and then listening to it.

I once believed that I possessed creative talent, but I have given up this idea; a woman must not desire to compose — there has never yet been one able to do it. Should I expect to be the one?