If Beethoven is a prodigy of man, Bach is a miracle of God.

Nothing primes inspiration more than necessity, whether it be the presence of a copyist waiting for your work or the prodding of an impresario tearing his hair.

Eating, loving, singing, and digesting are, in truth, the four acts of the comic opera known as life, and they pass like bubbles of a bottle of champagne. Whoever lets them break without having enjoyed them is a complete fool.

Answer them critics with silence and indifference. It works better, I assure you, than anger and argument. . . .

Wagner has lovely moments but awful quarters of an hour.

If Beethoven is a prodigy of man, Bach is a miracle of God.

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind.