You know that I immerse myself in music, so to speak- that I think about it all day long- that I like experimenting- studying- reflecting.

Melody is the essence of music. I compare a good melodist to a fine racer, and counterpoints to hack post-horses.

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

I cannot write in verse, for I am no poet. I cannot arrange the parts of speech with such art as to produce effects of light and shade, for I am no painter. Even by signs and gestures I cannot express my thoughts and feelings, for I am no dancer. But I can do so by means of sounds, for I am a musician.

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

I write [music] as a sow piddles.

My great grandfather used to say to his wife, my great-grandmother, who in turn told her daughter, my grandmother, who repeated it to her daughter, my mother, who used to remind her daughter, my own sister, that to talk well and eloquently was a very great art, but that an equally great one was to know the right moment to stop.