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.

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.

Stupid criticism and still more stupid praise.

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.

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

It is better to invert reality than to copy it.