It is quite untrue that British people don't appreciate music. They may not understand it but they absolutely love the noise it makes.

The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought.

They are quite hopeless - drooling, driveling, doleful, depressing, dropsical drips.

Composers should write tunes that chauffeurs and errand boys can whistle.

The trouble with women in an orchestra is that if they're attractive it will upset my players and if they're not it will upset me.

"Have you heard any Stockhausen?" Beecham was asked. "No, but I believe I have stepped in some."

Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands and all you can do is scratch it.

The sound of a harpsichord - two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in a thunderstorm.

Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory.

There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn't give a damn what goes on in between.

Her singing reminds me of a cart coming downhill with the brake on.

literature will lose, sunlight will win, don't worry.

To be perfectly honest with you, I think it's reckless to love and trust another person. It's clearly foolhardy.I'd like it very much if the many daredevils who go ahead anyway, enjoyed this book.

The main obstacle to further progress on the resource curse is China, and to a lesser extent India.

It's not what you know

Satan’s inquisitiveness would eventually be inherited by the offspring of Adam and Eve. The inquisitiveness was the original sin.

The doctors and nurses at the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital are saving lives every day and helping improve health care in the DRC which has been ravaged by more than a decade of war and disease.

to that piece in each of us that refuses to be silent.

I find it difficult to explain, but I'm quite ashamed of being an actress.

I've always got on very well with the French, perhaps because I'm very natural.

As you make your way along life's tumultuous highways, it's important to note that you should always carry a map, have plenty of fuel in the tank, and take frequent rest stops.