I'm very happy to hear that my work inspires writers and painters. It's the most beautiful compliment, the greatest reward. Art should always be an exchange.

Music melts all the separate parts of our bodies together.

An artist's duty is rather to stay open-minded and in a state where he can receive information and inspiration. You always have to be ready for that little artistic Epiphany.

Art is always and everywhere the secret confession, and at the same time the immortal movement of its time

The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.

Comedy is the blues for people who can?t sing.

Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth.

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

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

We're not trying to change the world; just music.

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

Poets and heroes are of the same race, the latter do what the former conceive.

A great poet is the most precious jewel of a nation.

The true art of memory is the art of attention.

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it.

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

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

Artistic temperament is a disease that afflicts amateurs.

Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?

And I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinking.

I can't listen to that much Wagner. I start getting the urge to conquer Poland.