It is not hard to compose but it is wonderfully hard to let the superfluous notes fall under the table. . . So many melodies fly about, one must be careful not to tread on them.

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.

The idea comes to me from outside of me - and is like a gift. I then take the idea and make it my own - that is where the skill lies.

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

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.

Never criticize the composition of a Royal Highness. You never know who may have written 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.