Every reasonable human being should be a moderate Socialist.

The observations and encounters of a solitary, taciturn man are vaguer and at the same times more intense than those of a sociable man; his thoughts are deeper, odder and never without a touch of sadness. Images and perceptions that could be dismissed with a glance, a laugh, an exchange of opinions, occupy him unduly, become more intense in the silence, become significant, become an experience, an adventure, an emotion. Solitude produces originality, bold and astonishing beauty, poetry. But solitude also produces perverseness, the disproportionate, the absurd and the forbidden.

Thought that can merge wholly into feeling, feeling that can merge wholly into thought - these are the artist's highest joy.

But my deepest and most secret love belongs to the fair-haired and the blue-eyed, the bright children of life, the happy, the charming and the ordinary.

I shall need to sleep three weeks on end to get rested from the rest I've had.

Yes, they are carnal, both of them, love and death, and therein lies their terror and their great magic!

He thought what a fine thing it was that people made music all over the world, even in the strangest settings – probably even on polar expeditions.