I cannot be so bad when everybody is so fond of me.
Treasures are no longer to be got by instrumental art.
My imagination can picture no fairer happiness than to continue living for art.
There is nothing greater than the joy of composing something oneself and then listening to it.
I will yield to popular demands only insofar as they do not betray my own convictions.
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.