In the theatrical works we love and admire the most, the ending of the drama generally takes place offstage.

Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.

If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.

Beauty and fullness of tone can be achieved by having the whole orchestra play with high clarinets and a carefully selected number of piccolos.

You must renounce all superficiality, all convention, all vanity and delusion.

The point is not to take the world's opinion as a guiding star but to go one's way in life and working unerringly, neither depressed by failure nor seduced by applause.

What is best in music is not to be found in the notes.

A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.

But it's peculiar, as soon as I am in the midst of nature and by myself, everything that is base and trivial vanishes without trace. On such days nothing scares me; and this helps me again and again.

I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way.

If you think you're boring your audience, go slower not faster.

Why is it "in" to be a christian, but "out" to live a holy life?

It's better to get along with Russia than not.

I don't really like the slogan 'It boy.'

No country in the world can yet say they have achieved gender equality.

Even under the best of circumstances, there's just something so damn tragic about growing up.

Human life is a series of compromises, and it is not always easy to achieve in practice what one has found to be true in theory.

When you work on a soap opera, that's three years of you working every day. There was no time to do anything other than the soap opera - you're locked in.

A great sentiment can be rendered immediately. Dream on it and look for the simplest form in which you can express it.

I've always been into chokers. They're definitely having a big moment right now, and that's so cool.

In 1945, there were more people killed, more buildings destroyed, more high explosives set off, more fires burning than before or since.