If you think that the brass is not blowing loud enough, mute it by a couple of degrees.

I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer.

The human voice is the most beautiful instrument of all, but the most difficult to play.

I want to be able to depict in music a glass of beer so accurately that every listener can tell whether it is a Pilsner or a Kulmbacher.

I shall never be converted, and I shall remain true to my old religion of the classics until my life's end.

Ideas, like young wine, should be put in storage and taken up again only after they have been allowed to ferment and to ripen.

Its a funny thing Alice, dying is just the way I composed it in Tod und Verklärung.

On conducting: If you can just barely hear the French horns on stage, the balance is perfect.

Never look at the trombones, you'll just encourage them.

Never look at the brass - it only encourages them.

Must one become seventy years old to recognize that one's greatest strength lies in creating musical kitsch?

The best is the enemy of good.

Too many non-achievers confuse humility with humiliation.

Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man's growth without destroying his roots.

Wanting anything too desperately is a form of aggression and violence, which will always be met with resistance.

Be who you are, not who the world wants you to be.

Extroverts never understand introverts, and it was like that in school days.

My fancies are fireflies Specks of living light twinkling in the dark.

If we would listen to our kids, we'd discover that they are largely self-explanatory.

Learn continually - there's always "one more thing" to learn!

People don't need wings to survive" "Mockingjays do.