I always try to make myself as widely understood as possible; and if I don't succeed, I consider it my own fault.

Our business is rejoicing, our business is rejoicing.

If they cut off both hands, I will compose music anyway holding the pen in my teeth.

Music is good, not evil. Poetry is good, not evil. Primitive, but oh, so true!

A creative artist works on his next composition because he was not satisfied with his previous one.

Every piece of music is a form of personal expression for its creator...If a work doesnt express the composers own personal point of view, his own ideas, then it doesnt, in my opinion, even deserve to be born.

We should think more about it, and accustom ourselves to the thought of death. We can't allow the fear of death to creep up on us unexpectedly. We have to make the fear familiar, and one way is to write about it. I don't think writing and thinking about death is characteristic only of old men. I think that if people began thinking about death sooner, they'd make fewer foolish mistakes.