You must renounce all superficiality, all convention, all vanity and delusion.

Behind me the branches of a wasted and sterile existence are cracking.

Never let oneself be guided by the opinion of one's contemporaries. Continue steadfastly on one's way.

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

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

The longer you live and the more you learn, the more clearly you will feel the difference between the few men who are truly great and the mere virtuosi.

What is best in music is not to be found in the notes.