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.

I hope you will no longer accuse me of a lack of delicacy. as I now count on your understanding.

What I wanted and what I visualized while composing has not always been realized.

It is strange how one feels drawn forward without knowing at first where one is going.

To write a symphony is, for me, to construct a world.

Beauty and fullness of tone can be achieved by having the whole orchestra play with high clarinets and a carefully selected number of piccolos.

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