It is obvious that anything a scientist discovers or invents is based on previous discoveries and inventions. The same applies to the arts.

To me, Mozart is our Shakespeare, the one who wrote the most dramatic, psychologically most baffling music. He combined ideas that no one else would have thought of putting together.

In the nineteenth century the more grandiose word inspiration began to replace the word idea in the arts.

Anybody can put things together that belong together. to put things together that don't go together, and make it work, that takes genius like Mozart's. Yet he is presented in the play Amadeus as a kind of silly boy whom the gods loved.

There is another interesting paradox here: by immersing ourselves in what we love, we find ourselves. We do not lose ourselves. One does not lose one's identity by falling in love.

Yes, influences are enriching, and they can be found in every work of art, even the most original.

Truth is a big concept.