If she is attractive, I can't perform with her; if she is not, then I won't.

There are no woman composers, never have been and possibly never will be.

If an opera cannot be played by an organ grinder, it's not going to achieve immortality.

Music first and last should sound well, should allure and enchant the ear. Never mind the inner significance.

I find brass bands have a melancholy sound. All right out of doors, of course - fifty miles away. Like bagpipes, they turn what had been a dream into a public nuisance.

The sound of a harpsichord - two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in a thunderstorm.

The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought.