Play always as if in the presence of a master.

It was an unforgettable picture to see Chopin sitting at the piano like a clairvoyant, lost in his dreams; to see how his vision communicated itself through his playing, and how, at the end of each piece, he had the sad habit of running one finger over the length of the plaintive keyboard, as though to tear himself forcibly away from his dream.

My whole life has been a twenty years struggle between poetry and prose, or, if you like to call it so, Music and Law.

Only when the form grows clear to you, will the spirit become so too.

You write to become immortal, or because the piano happens to be open, or you've looked into a pair of beautiful eyes.

You will be most readily cured of vanity or presumption by studying the history of music, and by hearing the master pieces which have been produced at different periods.

When you play, never mind who listens to you.