Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.

Those are miracles that no merely human brain can work. The artist is merely the sound conduct of a Force that dictates to him what he should do.

My things really are written with an appalling lack of practicality!

We cling nervously to the melody, but we don't handle it freely, we don't really make anything new out of it, we merely overload it.

In him converge all previous streams of tendency, not as into a pool, stagnant, passive, motionless, but as a noble river that received its tributary waters and bearss them onward in larger and statelier volume.

The fact that most people do not understand and respect the very best things, such as Mozart's concertos, is what permits men like us to become famous.

It is a real pleasure to see music so bright and spontaneous expressed with corresponding ease and grace.