I deny that either singers or conductors can "create" or work creatively - this, as I have always said, is a conception that leads to the abyss.

I have striven for perfection, it has always eluded me, but I surely had an obligation to make one more try.

To copy the truth can be a good thing, but to invent the truth is better, much better.

I adore art...when I am alone with my notes, my heart pounds and the tears stream from my eyes, and my emotion and my joys are too much to bear.

It is better to invert reality than to copy it.

It may be a good thing to copy reality; but to invent reality is much, much better.

The artist must yield himself to his own inspiraton, and if he has a true talent, no one knows and feels better than he what suits him.

Stupid criticism and still more stupid praise.

The success of our operas rests most of the time in the hands of the conductor. This person is as necessary as a tenor or a prima donna.

Of all composers, past and present, I am the least learned. I mean that in all seriousness, and by learning I do not mean knowledge of music.

Oh blessed a thousand times the peasant who is born, eats and dies without anybody bothering about his affairs.

Humility is the most undervalued godly virtue.

I don’t call it "Life Insurance, " I call it "Love Insurance." We buy it because we want to leave a legacy for those we love.

To me, a woman can't be a feminist just because she is a woman. She is a feminist because she begins to divest herself of sexist ways of thinking and revolutionizes her consciousness.

The whole art of war consists in getting at what is on the other side of the hill.

To walk around with an ego is a bad thing. To have confidence in yourself is a great thing.

I sometimes read that it's time for German democracy to finally grow up. I don't see it as a sign of maturity if we treat military missions as something normal.

I think I'm in the majority of Americans. I believe that I am in the mainstream of middle America.

It was the worst moment of my life. The producer came up and talked me back into going on stage.

Love is not enjoyment. Love is being enjoyed.

Every experience proves that the real problem of our existence lies in the fact that we ought to love one another, but do not.