Life would be flat without music. It is the background to all I do. It speaks to the heart in its own special way like nothing else.

Anyone who tells a lie has not a pure heart, and cannot make a good soup.

You're a happy fellow, for you'll give happiness and joy to many other people. There is nothing better or greater than that.

How glad I am to be able to roam in the wood and thicket, among trees and flowers and rocks ... in the country, every tree seems to speak to me, saying, "Holy! Holy", in the woods, there is enchantment which expresses all things.

She was such a good loving mother, my best friend. Oh, who was happier than I when I could still say the dear name "Mother," and it was heard, and whom can I say it to now?

Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.

You ask me where I get my ideas. That I cannot tell you with certainty. They come unsummoned, directly, indirectly - I could seize them with my hands - out in the open air, in the woods, while walking, in the silence of the nights, at dawn, excited by moods which are translated by the poet into words, by me into tones that sound and roar and storm about me till I have set them down in notes.