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

Never look at the trombones, you'll just encourage them.

The most perfect melodic shapes are found in Mozart; he has the lightness of touch which is the true objective ... Listen to the remarkable expansion of a Mozart melody, to Cherubino's 'Voi che sapete', for instance. You think it is coming to an end, but it goes farther, even farther.

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

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

The aria, after all, is the soul of opera.

Must one become seventy years old to recognize that one's greatest strength lies in creating musical kitsch?