Ideas, like young wine, should be put in storage and taken up again only after they have been allowed to ferment and to ripen.

I shall never be converted, and I shall remain true to my old religion of the classics until my life's end.

He'd be better off shoveling snow.

On conducting: If you can just barely hear the French horns on stage, the balance is perfect.

I want to be able to depict in music a glass of beer so accurately that every listener can tell whether it is a Pilsner or a Kulmbacher.

If you think that the brass is not blowing loud enough, mute it by a couple of degrees.

I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer.