Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.

Real popular culture is folk art - coalminers' songs and so forth.

Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth.

Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.

I have a genuine love affair with my audience. When I`m on stage they`re not privileged to see me. It`s a privilege for me to see them.

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

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

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

Art is never finished, only abandoned.

Art is permitted to survive only if it renounces the right to be different, and integrates itself into the omnipotent realm of the profane.

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

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.

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

The spoken form is in fact a very restrained representation of what is possible in the musical language.

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

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

Artistic temperament is a disease that afflicts amateurs.

Art not only imitates nature, but also completes its deficiencies.

We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth.

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

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.