Admittedly, it is really our duty, as artists, to hold up a mirror to our own era; but, on the other hand, these works have lives of their own, and they're still alive today.

All music has to speak in some form or other.

Within each individual young person you meet, you have the same fields to plough. The trick is just to wake them up, to sharpen their ears for what's already there in the music.

With creative people, truly new horizons open up.

In Romanticism, the main determinant is the mood, the atmosphere. And in that regard, you could also describe Schubert as a Romantic.

The future? Like unwritten books and unborn children, you don't talk about it.

Unfortunately, it happens all too seldom that you really disappear behind a work, that you are no longer audible as an interpreter.

Many, many composers have only found their way to a certain form, through familiarizing themselves with texts.

Toward the end of his life, one can sense that he was no longer thinking his way into the minds of others, causing them to speak on his behalf, but that he was now speaking for himself.

The composition of a single melody is born out of a bit of text, perhaps the first line, but it can also be the entire strophe; it can even be the poem's overall form.

But the thing that will always occupy me the most is music.

You have the power to create your own destiny. You just need to decide what you want and how badly you want it.

...and what it all comes down to is that I haven't got it all figured out just yet.

In Congress, I was a relentless advocate for fiscal responsibility.

I don't really have a plan. I've lived a very big life, and I don't feel my age, and I feel like I was born to be a mother.

Man is saved by love and duty, and by the hope that springs from duty, or rather from the moral facts of consciousness, as a flower springs from the soil.

Nothing seems to matter but ourselves. That's not how I was brought up. I don't recognize the country I live in anymore.

Whether I'm stressed out or angry or happy or depressed - however I feel, I say "I love my life," no matter what. That usually keeps me centered.

I'm personally opposed to a deep tan because I like to feel blond all over.

A lot of families deal with messy, inconvenient situations. Because that's life. Life doesn't turn out and it's not perfect. My life hasn't been perfect but it's what I'm going to make out of it.

I think understanding or comprehension is probably the strongest emotion that you feel, or at least some kind of empathy.