What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.

Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.

Music is the literature of the heart; it commences where speech ends.

I passionately hate the idea of being with it, I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.

People ask me how I make music. I tell them I just step into it. It's like stepping into a river and joining the flow. Every moment in the river has its song.

Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

Adding sound to movies would be like putting lipstick on the Venus de Milo.

Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.

When you were young, and your heart, was an open book. You used to say, live and let live.

Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.

Rhythm is something you either have or don't have, but when you have it, you have it all over.

To play without passion is inexcusable!

The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time.

You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.

The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.

Music with dinner is an insult, both to the cook and the violinist.

I love rock-n-roll. I think it's an exciting art form. It's revolutionary. Still revolutionary and it changed people. It changed their hearts. But yeah, even rock-n-roll has a lot of rubbish, really bad music.

Each song is a child I nourish and give my love to. But even if you have never written a song, your life is a song. How can it not be?