My sole ambition as a composer is to hurl my javelin into the infinite space of the future.

I foster a sorrowful conception of affection. Make no sacrifices.

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

Music is the heart of life." She speaks love; "without it, there is no possible good and with it everything is beautiful.

My piano is to me what a ship is to the sailor, what a steed is to the Arab. It is the intimate personal depository of everything that stirred wildly in my brain during the most impassioned days of my youth. It was there that all my wishes, all my dreams, all my joys, and all my sorrows lay.

For the virtuoso, musical works are in fact nothing but tragic and moving materializations of his emotions; he is called upon to make them speak, weep, sing and sigh, to recreate them in accordance with his own consciousness. In this way he, like the composer, is a creator, for he must have within himself those passions that he wishes to bring so intensely to life.

Real men are sadly lacking in this world, for when they are put to the test they prove worthless.