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

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

Oh blessed a thousand times the peasant who is born, eats and dies without anybody bothering about his affairs.

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

You may have the universe if I may have Italy.

Our mistake, you see, was to write interminable large operas, which had to fill an entire evening. And now along comes someone with a one or two-act opera without all that pompous nonsense - that was a happy reform.

The success of our operas rests most of the time in the hands of the conductor. This person is as necessary as a tenor or a prima donna.