Music was not invented by the composer, but found.

To study music, we must learn the rules. To create music, we must break them.

I've been a woman for a little over 50 years and have gotten over my initial astonishment. As for conducting an orchestra, that's a job where I don't think sex plays much part.

There is nothing boring in life except ourselves.

Loving a child doesn't mean giving in to all his whims; to love him is to bring out the best in him, to teach him to love what is difficult.

Words created divergencies between beings, because their precise meanings put an opinion around the idea. Music only retains the highest and purest substance of the idea, since it has the privilege of expressing all, whilst excluding nothing.

Nothing is better than music; when it takes us out of time, it has done more for us than we have the right to hope for.