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.

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

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.

It is better to invert reality than to copy it.

Oh, you happy sons of the North who have been reared at the bosom of Bach, how I envy you!

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