The real art of conducting consists in transitions.

Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.

If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.

Beauty and fullness of tone can be achieved by having the whole orchestra play with high clarinets and a carefully selected number of piccolos.

You must renounce all superficiality, all convention, all vanity and delusion.

The point is not to take the world's opinion as a guiding star but to go one's way in life and working unerringly, neither depressed by failure nor seduced by applause.

What is best in music is not to be found in the notes.

A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.

But it's peculiar, as soon as I am in the midst of nature and by myself, everything that is base and trivial vanishes without trace. On such days nothing scares me; and this helps me again and again.

I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way.

If you think you're boring your audience, go slower not faster.

World looks narrow for great people, and world looks wide for minor people

Look: each moment is a cradle and a casket: may all life and all death seem strange to you.

Being in an agony he prayed more earnestly.

You should write, write, write every day, and learn to edit and pare it right back so you're proud of every sentence, and each one is either being useful or beautiful, but hopefully both.

People push my buttons, so I'm going to react.

I'm trying to get more into other things, where reality is nothing but each individual's way of thinking.

Lord free me of myself, so I can please you!

I have more artistic control in a smaller show. But it doesn't really matter. Sometimes you can have the smallest role in the smallest production and still make a big impact.

If you're a female and you get asked by someone who shoots the most beautiful female scenes to be in their film, it's kind of exciting.

Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.