Great art likes chains. The greatest artists have created art within bounds. Or else they have created their own chains.

To study music, we must learn the rules. To create music, we must break them.

The essential conditions of everything you do must be choice, love, passion.

Life is denied by lack of attention, whether it be to cleaning windows or trying to write a masterpiece.

It is nothing to succeed if one has not taken great trouble, and it is nothing to fail if one has done the best one could.

Loving a child doesn't mean giving in to all his whims; to love him is to bring out the best in him, to teach him to love what is difficult.

The art of music is so deep and profound that to approach it very seriously only is not enough. One must approach music with a serious rigor and, at the same time, with a great, affectionate joy.

Do not take up music unless you would rather die than not do so.

Do nothing for effect. Do it for truth.

Without discipline, there can be no freedom.

Nothing is better than music; when it takes us out of time, it has done more for us than we have the right to hope for.

If you walk in joy, happiness is close behind.

You can get what you want in life.You must reach out with all your heart.

Truth is a weapon and lies are a necessary shield.

Guard against idols -- yes, guard against all idols, of which surely the greatest is oneself.

When you have practiced drawing for a while... take pains and pleasure in constantly copying the best works that you can find done by the hand of great masters.

Today's top players only want to play in London or for Manchester United. That's what happened when I tried to sign Alan Shearer and he went to Blackburn.

I must write. If I stop writing my life will have been an abject failure. It is that already to other people. But it could be an abject failure to myself. I will not have earned death.

We are not born for ourselves alone.

If you visit your friend, why need you apologize for not having visited him, and waste his time and deface your own act? Visit him now.

The best leaders are very often the best listeners. They have an open mind. They are not interested in having their own way but in finding the best way.