It is already a great thing if the main ideas and general outline of a work come without any racking of brains, as the result of that supernatural and inexplicable force we call inspiration.

Music is an incomparably more powerful means and is a subtler language for expressing the thousand different moments of the soul's moods.

Where the heart does not enter; there can be no music.

To regret the past, to hope in the future, and never to be satisfied with the present: that is what I spend my whole life doing

Truly there would be reason to go mad were it not for music.

Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy.

Madam, you ask me how I compose. I compose sitting down.

Music possesses much richer means of expression and it is a more subtle medium for translating the 1000 shifting moments of the feelings of the soul.

After the last notes of Gotterdammerung I felt as though I had been let out of prison.

I like the plot of The Nutcracker - not at all.

The creative process is like music which takes root with extraordinary force and rapidity

That was the trouble with formulating a system: what could you do but repeat it?

Nonbelievers are not anti-religious, they are anti-fraud and anti-deception.

Men who attain great heights always have few friends but many admirers, while those who ply the lower reaches of fortune often have many friends but scarcely an admirer in sight

I have never wanted to go abroad before but you can never say never in football.

Warriorship does not refer to making war on others. Aggression is the source of our problems, not the solution. Warriorship is the tradition of human bravery, or the tradition of fearlessness.

I make music. It's kind of what I've always done.

Who wants a dream that's near-fetched?

Every time I make a record, it's a gem with different facets, and every time I like to explore a different side. The core is the same, it never changes, but I try to create a different shape.

I'm not trying to climb a ladder - I'm casting a bit of a net.

Shut your damn mouth.