The taste of death is upon my lips. I feel something that is not of this earth.

It is when I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer.....that ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence and how they come, I know not, nor can I force them.

One must not make oneself cheap here - that is a cardinal point - or else one is done. Whoever is most impertinent has the best chance.

You know that I become quite powerless whenever I am obliged to write for an instrument which I cannot bear.

Whoever is most impertinent has the best chance.

Music is my life and my life is music. Anyone who does not understand this is not worthy of God.

A bachelor, in my opinion, is only half alive.