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

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.

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

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.

I felt very lonely when they were all there.

It all goes so fast, and character makes the difference when it's close.

Tonight I will take back what is mine.

It's pretty amazing to me that my first hit record was an Elvis Presley record.

If the United States was mad enough to attack Iran or aggress Venezuela again the price of a barrel of oil could reach $150 or even $200.

Don't die to see me, live to love me.

If you must go nowhere, step out.

If a plane crashes and 99 people die while 1 survives, it is called a miracle. Should the families of the 99 think so?

If God were alive today, He'd be an atheist.

The NBA is fairy tale and real life mixed together.