To win applause one must write stuff so simple that a coachman might sing it.

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

I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.

My fatherland has always the first claim on me.

She's only pretty in that she has two small black eyes and a good figure.

I am never happier than when I have something to compose, for that, after all, is my sole delight and passion

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