Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it.
Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.
To play without passion is inexcusable!
A great poet is the most precious jewel of a nation.
I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.
Music with dinner is an insult, both to the cook and the violinist.
Poets and heroes are of the same race, the latter do what the former conceive.
One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.
Critics are the men who have failed in literature and art.
The music industry can make you feel like a prostitute.
It's so sweet, I feel like my teeth are rotting when I listen to the radio.
The spoken form is in fact a very restrained representation of what is possible in the musical language.
The only escape from the miseries of life are music and cats...
Adding sound to movies would be like putting lipstick on the Venus de Milo.
Once you become predictable, no one's interested anymore.
You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.
Music is the literature of the heart; it commences where speech ends.
Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
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.
Artistic temperament is a disease that afflicts amateurs.
I passionately hate the idea of being with it, I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.