Why hurry over beautiful things? Why not linger and enjoy them?

I once believed that I possessed creative talent, but I have given up this idea; a woman must not desire to compose — there has never yet been one able to do it. Should I expect to be the one?

My imagination can picture no fairer happiness than to continue living for art.

Composing gives me great pleasure... there is nothing that surpasses the joy of creation, if only because through it one wins hours of self-forgetfulness, when one lives in a world of sound.

There is nothing greater than the joy of composing something oneself and then listening to it.

I wish to lead a life free from care, and I see that I shall be unhappy if I cannot always work at my art.

I will yield to popular demands only insofar as they do not betray my own convictions.

I do not want horses or diamonds - I am happy in possessing you.

My health may be better preserved if I exert myself less, but in the end doesn't each person give his life for his calling?

If I have known much trouble in my youth, I have also known much joy.

Treasures are no longer to be got by instrumental art.

It was a child's awareness, never spoken or even fully acknowledged, but deeply felt.

The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves.

After the miners' rally, when I saw how emotional everyone got when I sang, I thought I might get somewhere with singing

If anyone asks me whether I like being a popular writer, I ask them whether they think I'd rather be an unpopular writer.

With a kiss you can strip me defenseless.

On the path of love we feel that if we love today, it's only because God is loving through us, because there is a special grace present with which we can love.

People must not be forced to adopt me as their favourite author, even for their own good.

We here in Egypt are fed up with U.S. colonialism.

For it is obvious to everybody, I think, that this study [of astronomy] compels the soul to look upward and leads it away from things here to higher things.

Normal birth to me should not be numb from the waist down and waiting for the doctor to tell you to push. There's a reason we feel it. There's a reason we need to feel it.