The language of music is common to all generations and nations; it is understood by everybody, since it is understood with the heart.
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.
How wonderful opera would be if there were no singers.
Nothing primes inspiration more than necessity.
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.