Nothing is more beautiful than a guitar, except, possibly two.

I really don't know whether any place contains more pianists than Paris, or whether you can find more asses and virtuosos anywhere.

I don't know how it is, but the Germans are amazed at me and I am amazed at them for finding anything to be amazed about.

To be a great composer requires immense experience... One acquires this by listening not only to other men's work, but above all to one's own!

Man is never always happy, and very often only a brief period of happiness is granted him in this world; so why escape from this dream which cannot last long?

Vienna is a handsome, lively city, and pleases me exceedingly.

I am gay on the outside, especially among my own folk (I count Poles my own); but inside something gnaws at me; some presentiment, anxiety, dreams - or sleeplessness - melancholy, indifference - desire for life, and the next instant, desire for death; some kind of sweet peace, some kind of numbness, absent-mindedness.