On those who overanalyze his music: When you tear the wings off a butterfly, it is no longer a butterfly

If we look at the works of JS Bach ... on each page we discover things which we thought were born only yesterday, from delightful arabesques to an overflowing of religious feeling greater than anything we have since discovered.

The century of airplanes has a right to its own music.

Art is the most beautiful deception of all! And although people try to incorporate the everyday events of life in it, we must hope that it will remain a deception lest it become a utilitarian thing, sad as a factory.

[on Richard Wagner] A beautiful sunset that was mistaken for a dawn.

Some people wish above all to conform to the rules, I wish only to render what I can hear.

First of all, ladies and gentlemen, you must forget that you are singers.