The earth is suffocating... Swear to make them cut me open, so that I won't be buried alive.

I have met a great celebrity, Madame Dudevant, known as George Sand... Her appearance is not to my liking. Indeed there is something about her which positively repels me... What an unattractive person La Sand is... Is she really a woman? I'm inclined to doubt it.

Bach is like an astronomer who, with the help of ciphers, finds the most wonderful stars . . . Beethoven embraced the universe with the power of his spirit . . . I do not climb so high. A long time ago I decided that my universe will be the soul and heart of man.

The earth is suffocating... Swear to make them cut me open, so that I won't be buried alive.

The last thing is simplicity. After having gone through all the difficulties, having played an endless number of notes, it is simplicity that matters, with all its charm. It is the final seal on Art. Anyone who strives for this to begin with will be disappointed. You cannot begin at the end.

As something has involuntarily crept into my head through my eyes,I love to indulge it, even though it may be all wrong.

Time is the best of critics; and patience the best of teachers.