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

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

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

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.

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.

Don't be ridiculous, Charlie, people love the parents who beat their kids in department stores. It's the ones who just let their kids wreak havoc that everybody hates.

don't believe to your eyes believe to your actions

It is the nature of truth in general, as of some ores in particular, to be richest when most superficial.

That's how I prepare for anything - I read whatever I can get my hands on, talk to people. I'm a bit of a nerd like that.

Nothing is miserable unless you think it so; and on the other hand, nothing brings happiness unless you are content with it.

Human Nature is the only science of man; and yet has been hitherto the most neglected.

I don't mind being called a weirdo.

I believe every single woman could accomplish what I've accomplished.

Men prefer to believe that they are degenerated angels, rather than elevated apes.