It is a mistake to think that the price of my art has become easy to me.

I love it when an aria fits a singer as perfectly as a suit of well-tailored clothes.

Silence is very important. The silence between the notes are as important as the notes themselves.

Let us put our trust in God and console ourselves with the thought that all is well, if it is in accordance with the will of the Almighty, as He knows best what is profitable and beneficial to our temporal happiness and our eternal salvation.

Directly after God in heaven comes a Papa.

God first, then papa.

When I am at peace with myself . . . then thoughts flow into me most easily and at their best. Where they come from and how - that I cannot say . . . I'd be willing to work forever and forever if I were permitted to write only such music as I want to write and can write - which I myself think good.