Without order there can be no inner satisfaction. Without inner satisfaction there can be no freedom. Without freedom there is no joy.

To study music, we must learn the rules. To create music, we must break them.

The essential conditions of everything you do must be choice, love, passion.

Life is denied by lack of attention, whether it be to cleaning windows or trying to write a masterpiece.

It is nothing to succeed if one has not taken great trouble, and it is nothing to fail if one has done the best one could.

Loving a child doesn't mean giving in to all his whims; to love him is to bring out the best in him, to teach him to love what is difficult.

The art of music is so deep and profound that to approach it very seriously only is not enough. One must approach music with a serious rigor and, at the same time, with a great, affectionate joy.

Do not take up music unless you would rather die than not do so.

Do nothing for effect. Do it for truth.

Without discipline, there can be no freedom.

Nothing is better than music; when it takes us out of time, it has done more for us than we have the right to hope for.

You cannot trust yourself, ’ she agreed, bed-rock calm. ‘Therefore, let go. Seize life and place trust in me.

I don't know what the word is in Austrian.

Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

Open your arms to change but don't let go of your values.

By a quirk of culture and history, it could be that China has arrived today where many other 'more developed countries' will arrive tomorrow.

One might say that our words are a movie screen that reveals what we have been thinking and the attitudes we have.

Wine has drowned more than the sea.

You can never turn your back on the ocean.

Jim Bakker. He's lost everything, he's ruined. And the worst thing of all he still has to wake up to her!

I'm jealous of everyone discovering Lovesey and Diamond for the first time-you have a wonderful backlist to catch up on. Me, all I can do is wait for the next book.