Of all my children, this is the one that cost me the worst birth-pangs and brought me the most sorrow; and for that reason it is the one most dear to me.

Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.

I want to seize fate by the throat.

I change many things, discard others, and try again and again until I am satisfied; then, in my head, I being to elaborate the work in its breadth, its narrowness, its height, its depth...I hear and see the image in front of me from every angle as if it had been cast and only the labour of writing it down remains.

My heart is full of many things there are moments when I feel that speech is nothing after all.

Men are not only together when they are with each other; even the distant and the dead live with us.

Applaud my friends, the comedy is over... [on his death bed]