To be deprived of art and left alone with philosophy is to be close to Hell.

A plague on eminence! I hardly dare cross the street any more without a convoy, and I am stared at wherever I go like an idiot member of a royal family or an animal in a zoo; and zoo animals have been known to die from stares.

Money may kindle, but it cannot by itself, and for very long, burn.

I live neither in the past nor in the future. I am in the present. I cannot know what tomorrow will bring forth. I can know only what the truth is for me today. That is what I am called upon to serve, and I serve it in all lucidity.

Music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all. Music expresses itself.

All you have to do is close your eyes and wait for the symbols.

What gives the artist real prestige is his imitators.