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

In opera, there is always too much singing.

Do not allow the accents in the brass to produce space between the notes.

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

Music begins where words are powerless to express. Music is made for the inexpressible. I want music to seem to rise from the shadows and indeed sometimes to return to them.

But music, don't you know, is a dream from which the veils have been lifted. It's not even the expression of a feeling, it's the feeling itself.

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