If they cut off both hands, I will compose music anyway holding the pen in my teeth.

When a man is in despair, it means that he still believes in something.

Real music is always revolutionary, for it cements the ranks of the people; it arouses them and leads them onward.

I write music, it’s performed. After all, my music says it all. It doesn’t need historical and hysterical commentaries. In the long run, any words about music are less important than the music.

A creative artist works on his next composition because he was not satisfied with his previous one.

In the long run, any words about music are less important than the music.

What you have in your head, put down on paper. The head is a fragile vessel.

I feel eternal pain for those who were killed by Hitler, but I feel no less pain for those killed on Stalin's orders. I suffer for everyone who was tortured, shot, or starved to death.

It's about the people, who have stopped believing because the cup of evil has run over.

The most uninteresting part of the biography of a composer is his childhood. All those preludes are the same and the reader hurries on to the fugue.

A great piece of music is beautiful regardless of how it is performed.

Life is not just for living

Respect yourself if you would have others respect you.

I don't want to be perfect, but I do want to be a role model. My mom always tells me that imperfections equal beauty. All of us are imperfect.

I distrust camels, and anyone else who can go a week without a drink.

We should measure welfare's success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.

I wanted to play drums because I fell in love with the glitter and the lights, but it wasn't about adulation. It was being up there playing.

Russia does not control oil prices - OPEC does. So Russia is a hostage in the hands of those who control these prices

One can easily tell that the creator of the paintings in the Sistine Chapel was above all a sculptor

Openness has been vital to Asia's fast growth in the past and it will continue to be crucial for the area's further development.

When the advice of Moscow ran counter to [Ho Chi Minh's] own ideas - as in the 1930s - he kept his head down and waited until the situation changed in his favor with the beginning of the Pacific War.