 An operetta is simply a small and gay opera. |
| You must renounce all superficiality, all convention, all vanity and delusion. |
| The spirit can assert itself only through the medium of clear form. |
| What I wanted and what I visualized while composing has not always been realized. |
| I don't let myself get carried away by my own ideas - I abandon 19 out of 20 of them every day. |
| The further the music develops, the more complex the apparatus used by the composer to express his thoughts becomes. |
| There is a world of difference between a Mahler eighth note and a normal eighth note. |
| I also had a brother who was like me a musician and a composer. A man of great talent, far more gifted than I. He died very young... he killed himself in the prime of his life. |
| I beg of you... never assume an inner or an outer pose, never a disguise. |
| I live like a Hottentot. I cannot exchange one sensible word with anyone. |
| A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything. |
| It's not just a question of conquering a summit previously unknown, but of tracing, step by step, a new pathway to it. |
| 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. |
| If I weren't the way I am, I shouldn't write my symphonies. |
| If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music. |
| Melodic invention is one of the surest signs of a divine gift. |
| With the coming of spring, I am calm again. |
| Discipline, work. Work, discipline. |
| The real art of conducting consists in transitions. |
| In the theatrical works we love and admire the most, the ending of the drama generally takes place offstage. |
