Its a funny thing Alice, dying is just the way I composed it in Tod und Verklärung.

I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer.

The human voice is the most beautiful instrument of all, but the most difficult to play.

I want to be able to depict in music a glass of beer so accurately that every listener can tell whether it is a Pilsner or a Kulmbacher.

I shall never be converted, and I shall remain true to my old religion of the classics until my life's end.

Ideas, like young wine, should be put in storage and taken up again only after they have been allowed to ferment and to ripen.

On conducting: If you can just barely hear the French horns on stage, the balance is perfect.

If you think that the brass is not blowing loud enough, mute it by a couple of degrees.

Never look at the trombones, you'll just encourage them.

Never look at the brass - it only encourages them.

Must one become seventy years old to recognize that one's greatest strength lies in creating musical kitsch?

The real world is where the monsters are.

I know we can't always know what medical surprises may happen during childbirth. But my hope is to go fully natural - no epidural, no interventions. Wish me luck.

Simple things should be simple and complex things should be possible.

Book-publishing is all about politics. Agents, editors, which books will be puffed, which ignored, etc.

Our minds have a tendency to wander. To duck and feint and keep us at a slight remove from the moment at hand.

Poor cow, you'll get your dumb man. You'll see your whole life coming at you in the back of his hand.

When I photograph, I try to use my instincts as much as possible. It is when pictures are unconsidered and irrational that they come to life; that they evolve from showing to being.

I don't think you need to dumb down to a child, you merely have to be clear, you know?

With a modem, anyone can follow the world and report on the world-no middle man, no big brother. I guess this changes everything.