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.

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.

The artist must yield himself to his own inspiraton, and if he has a true talent, no one knows and feels better than he what suits him.

Stupid criticism and still more stupid praise.

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.

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

It is better to invert reality than to copy it.