The trouble with the opera is there's always to much singing.

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

Beauty seems to strike some people as a personal affront.

Composers aren't daring enough. They're afraid of that sacred idol called 'common sense', which is the most dreadful thing I know - after all, it's no more than a religion founded to excuse the ubiquity of imbeciles!

There is no theory. You merely have to listen. Pleasure is the law.

Art is the most beautiful deception of all!

Inspiration and ideas only come to me when I have not had a woman in a very long time... Ballads, polonaises, even a whole concerto may have been lost forever up your des durka, I can't tell you how many. I have been so deeply engulfed in my love for you I have hardly created anything.