I carry a deep sadness of the heart which must now and then break out in sound.

Brahms' Variations are better than mine, but mine were written before his.

Mournful and yet grand is the destiny of the artist.

Life is only a long and bitter suicide, and faith alone can transform this suicide into a sacrifice.

Music is never stationary; successive forms and styles are only like so many resting-places - like tents pitched and taken down again on the road to the Ideal.

So let us not worry, and look instead as it has been taught us to do, as the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, keeping complete faith in Our Father's goodness.

A good Cuban cigar closes the doors to the vulgarities of the world.