Don't bother looking at the view - I have already composed it.
Behind me the branches of a wasted and sterile existence are cracking.
It's not just a question of conquering a summit previously unknown, but of tracing, step by step, a new pathway to it.
I have become a different person. I don't know whether this person is better, he certainly is not happier.
I hope you will no longer accuse me of a lack of delicacy. as I now count on your understanding.
The call of love sounds very hollow among these immobile rocks.
If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.
Even if people censure me, they should do so hat in hand.
I beg of you... never assume an inner or an outer pose, never a disguise.
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.
It is easier to achieve a desired result in short pieces.
The further the music develops, the more complex the apparatus used by the composer to express his thoughts becomes.
It should be one's sole endeavor to see everything afresh and create it anew.
Spring won't let me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again.
Discipline, work. Work, discipline.
With the coming of spring, I am calm again.
I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way.
I live like a Hottentot. I cannot exchange one sensible word with anyone.
All that is not perfect down to the smallest detail is doomed to perish.
Melodic invention is one of the surest signs of a divine gift.