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

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

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

What I need is to believe in myself again — for my faith has been greatly undermined; it seems to me my role is over.

There are people that I love I am all of them

Grief lets you indulge in it, so that it can feed itself.

Live like yourself, was soon my lady's word, And lo! two puddings smok'd upon the board.

I don't want to be a great chief executive without being a great mum and a great wife.

In this world, where we find ourselves, we need compassion more than anything, I think, or we are all alone.

Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim.

Let each man have the wit to go his own way.

I'll always be a foreigner.

You can play golf with liberals, be neighbors with them, go out to dinner. I just don't want them in power.

I have the wherewithal to challenge myself for my entire life. That's a great gift.