I hate you, Richard Wagner . . . but I hate you on my knees.

Life without music is unthinkable. Life without music is academic. That is why my contact with music is a total embrace.

Children must receive music instruction as naturally as food, with as much pleasure as they derive from a ball game, and this must happen from the beginning of their lives.

A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future.

Mozart's music is constantly escaping from its frame, because it cannot be contained in it.

Success is all very well as long as you don't inhale.

The gift of imagination is by no means an exclusive property of the artist; it is a gift we all share; to some degree or other all of us, all of you, are endowed with the powers of fantasy.