There is nothing more frightening than the faces of people whom one does not know but who seem to know one, and be amused by one.

I wonder if we are all wrong about each other, if we are just composing unwritten novels about the people we meet?

I always have beauty around me, for I have but to go to my piano, and trace one of the million designs that have been made by my masters.

You must always believe that life is as extraordinary as music says it is.

No great thing happens suddenly.

... A La Recherche du Temps Perdu is like a beautiful hand with long fingers reaching out to pluck a perfect fruit, without error,for the accurate eye knows well it is growing just there on the branch, while Ulysses is the fumbling of a horned hand in darkness after a doubted jewel.

An audience proves its discipline by its capacity for stillness. Those who have never practiced continuous application to an exacting process cannot settle down to simple watching; they must chew gum, they must dig the peel off their oranges, they must shift from foot to foot, from buttock to buttock.