My compositions spring from my sorrows. Those that give the world the greatest delight were born of my deepest griefs.

Happy is the man who finds a true friend, and far happier is he who finds that true friend in his wife.

Anyone who loves music can never be quite unhappy.

When I wished to sing of love, it turned to sorrow. And when I wished to sing of sorrow, it was transformed for me into love.

You believe happiness to be derived from the place in which once you have been happy, but in truth it is centered in ourselves.

Every night when I go to bed, I hope that I may never wake again, and every morning renews my grief.

No one feels another's grief, no one understands another's joy. People imagine they can reach one another. In reality they only pass each other by.

I am composing like a god, as if it simply had to be done as it has been done.

Easy mind, light heart. A mind that is too easy hides a heart that is too heavy.

O Mozart, immortal Mozart, how many, how infinitely many inspiring suggestions of a finer, better life you have left in our souls!

There is no such thing as happy music.

Trust yourself. You’ve survived a lot, and you’ll survive whatever is coming.

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone.

It is a painful thing to look at your own trouble and know that you yourself and no one else has made it.

My son says I never tell stories about anyone who's living.

I am not the one of us who has no heart.

The elite isn't leading anymore. It's trapped.

There is no virtue in penance and fasting which waste the body; they are only fanatical and monkish.

I think what Robert Redford established is amazing; thank god for Robert Redford. He's set an amazing example with Sundance and I hope to follow that in my own way.

The great artist takes what he needs.

In our world of rampant individualisation, relationships are mixed blessings. They vacillate between a sweet dream and a nightmare, and there is no telling when one turns into the other.