I have become a different person. I don't know whether this person is better, he certainly is not happier.

I beg of you... never assume an inner or an outer pose, never a disguise.

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 don't let myself get carried away by my own ideas; I abandon 19 out of 20 of them every day.

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

I also had a brother who was like me a musician and a composer. A man of great talent, far more gifted than I. He died very young... he killed himself in the prime of his life.

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