I deny that either singers or conductors can "create" or work creatively - this, as I have always said, is a conception that leads to the abyss.

I have striven for perfection, it has always eluded me, but I surely had an obligation to make one more try.

It may be a good thing to copy reality; but to invent reality is much, much better.

Of all composers, past and present, I am the least learned. I mean that in all seriousness, and by learning I do not mean knowledge of music.

Through care taken over trends, the desire to be novel and affectation knowledge, we repudiate our art, our instinct, our own way of doing things; it is absurd and stupid

I adore art...when I am alone with my notes, my heart pounds and the tears stream from my eyes, and my emotion and my joys are too much to bear.

Oh, you happy sons of the North who have been reared at the bosom of Bach, how I envy you!