America, the country of my heart, my second home.

Art without technique is invertebrate, shapeless, characterless.

If I don't practise for one day, I know it; if I don't practise for two days, the critics knows it; if I don't practise for three days, the audience knows it.

Is there anything more true than human pain? Is there anything more sincere than the cry for help from those who suffer? Only a great wave of mankind's pity can surmount an immense wave of human misery?

When one is an artist, what else can he be?

Fatherland before everything, art afterward.

I am inclined to believe that some music, like certain poetry, finds its appeal and way to all.