It is a funny thing, but when I am making music, all the answers I seek for in life seem to be there, in the music. Or rather, I should say, when I am making music, there are no questions and no need for answers.

I live like a Hottentot. I cannot exchange one sensible word with anyone.

In the theatrical works we love and admire the most, the ending of the drama generally takes place offstage.

With the coming of spring, I am calm again.

But it's peculiar, as soon as I am in the midst of nature and by myself, everything that is base and trivial vanishes without trace. On such days nothing scares me; and this helps me again and again.

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

It's not just a question of conquering a summit previously unknown, but of tracing, step by step, a new pathway to it.