It is always the same with me; only when I experience something do I compose, and only when composing do I experience! After all, a musician's nature can hardly be expressed in words.

The spirit can assert itself only through the medium of clear form.

A full cup of wine at the right time is worth more than all the kingdoms of this earth!

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

I am thrice homeless, as a native of Bohemia in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, and as a Jew throughout the world. Everywhere an intruder, never welcomed.

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

Fortunately, something always remains to be harvested. So let us not be idle.