I don't choose what I compose. It chooses me.

The point is not to take the world's opinion as a guiding star but to go one's way in life and working unerringly, neither depressed by failure nor seduced by applause.

In its beginnings, music was merely chamber music, meant to be listened to in a small space by a small audience.

For the last month I have been a strict vegetarian. The moral effects of this regime are immense, owing to the voluntary subjugation of the flesh and the resulting absence of desires. You will appreciate how full I am of this idea when I tell you that I expect it to work the regeneration of mankind. I advise you to change over to a natural way of life, with proper nourishment (wholemeal bread), and you will soon feel the benefit.

The further the music develops, the more complex the apparatus used by the composer to express his thoughts becomes.

I was a crazy young man who let himself be blinded by his passions and obeyed only the impulses of the moment.

Destiny smiles upon me but without making me the least bit happier.