To judge a composer's work, one must consider it as a whole.
If I weren't the way I am, I shouldn't write my symphonies.
Melodic invention is one of the surest signs of a divine gift.
Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.
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.
I beg of you... never assume an inner or an outer pose, never a disguise.