Many, many composers have only found their way to a certain form, through familiarizing themselves with texts.
Dietrich Fischer-DieskauParticularly at around the age of 70 you reach a stage where you have to be very careful. If, at that point, you abandon the work you have been doing, there is a good chance that you will just collapse and drift.
Dietrich Fischer-DieskauUnfortunately, it happens all too seldom that you really disappear behind a work, that you are no longer audible as an interpreter.
Dietrich Fischer-DieskauAnd what unity is to be had, at a time when orchestras are dying out, and when opera houses are about to close their doors; what's going to come next - when nothing new in music, for the orchestra, is truly lasting: pieces are performed once, and then they're thrown away.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau