Wagner used to read the libretti of his operas to his friends; I am glad I was not there.

The art of music above all the other arts is the expression of the soul of a nation.

Music is the reaching out towards the utmost realities by means of ordered sound.

But in the next world I shan't be doing music, with all the striving and disappointments. I shall be being it.

I have always found it difficult to study. I have learnt almost entirely what I have learnt by trying it out on the dog.

The duty of the words is to say just as much as the music has left unsaid and no more.

There is no reason why an atheist could not write a good Mass.

I suppose it never occurs to these people that a man might just want to write a piece of music.

To the unmusical hearer a note on the gong means dinner, this perhaps often is menacing enough.

It looks wrong, and it sounds wrong, but it's right.

The great men of music close periods; they do not inaugurate them. The pioneer work, the finding of new paths, is left to smaller men.

Sometimes, people don’t need our monies and our treasures. All they need is our encouragements to give them hope.

Love is expressed more by deeds than words.

Serenity is when I realized I'm blessed with beautiful nature around.

A conscientious man would be cautious how he dealt in blood.

The wise use of leisure, it must be conceded, is a product of civilization and education.

It is rare for people to say they want to be held accountable, but in reality, everyone wants everyone else to be held accountable.

With 'Harry Potter,' I've been all over the world. I probably wouldn't have gone to New York so young if it weren't for the films.

What's so fascinating about people is what they don't show. People are masters at it; usually actors show too much.

That's for non-musicians to say: "I only listen to this or that type of music." I think musicians love all music, or at least that's my case.

I want to write a novel about Silence," he said; “the things people don’t say.