Don't be too dismissive of children. While it's true that few children are artists, all artists are children.
Divine fires do not blaze each day but an artist functions in their afterglow, hoping for their recurrence.
Bel canto is to opera what pole-vaulting is to ballet.
The art of translation lies less in knowing the other language than in knowing your own.
Compose first, worry later.
If music could be translated into human speech, it would no longer need to exist.