It is better to invert reality than to copy it.
It may be a good thing to copy reality; but to invent reality is much, much better.
I have striven for perfection, it has always eluded me, but I surely had an obligation to make one more try.
I order that my funeral ceremonies be extremely modest, and that they take place at dawn or at the evening Ave Maria, without song or music.
You may have the universe if I may have Italy.
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.