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.

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

To copy the truth can be a good thing, but to invent the truth is better, much better.

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.

It is better to invert reality than to copy it.

The artist must yield himself to his own inspiration... I should compose with utter confidence a subject that set my musical blood going, even though it were condemned by all other artists as anti-musical.