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

Music is a kind of harmonious language.

Nothing primes inspiration more than necessity.

One can't judge Wagner's opera Lohengrin after a first hearing, and I certainly don't intend to hear it a second time.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is the only musician who had as much knowledge asgenius, and as much genius as knowledge.

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.

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