Love is rebellious bird that nobody can tame, and it's all in vain to call it if it chooses to refuse.

As a musician I tell you that if you were to suppress adultery, fanaticism, crime, evil, the supernatural, there would no longer be the means for writing one note.

Ah, music! What a beautiful art! But what a wretched profession!

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche commenting on the music of Georges Bizet: His music has the tang of sunny climates, their bracing air, their clearness. It voices a sensibility hitherto unknown to us.

I want to do nothing chic, I want to have ideas before beginning a piece.

I lived in Italy for three years and wanted no part of the country's disreputable way of life.

The only impossible task is the one which we fear to begin.

Let the change begin with your choices this very moment.

Science increases our power in proportion as it lowers our pride.

Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough.

The greatest mistake I made was not to die in office.

I trust people too much, and the other tragedy is I can't say no.

A home is very, very important to me. But I do change things around a lot.

Obedience isn’t a lack of fear. It’s just doing it scared.

I have had a few turning points, the first day I entered a gymnastics school at age 6.