The artist must yield himself to his own inspiraton, and if he has a true talent, no one knows and feels better than he what suits him.

I have striven for perfection, it has always eluded me, but I surely had an obligation to make one more try.

To copy the truth can be a good thing, but to invent the truth is better, much better.

I adore art...when I am alone with my notes, my heart pounds and the tears stream from my eyes, and my emotion and my joys are too much to bear.

It is better to invert reality than to copy it.

It may be a good thing to copy reality; but to invent reality is much, much better.

Stupid criticism and still more stupid praise.

The success of our operas rests most of the time in the hands of the conductor. This person is as necessary as a tenor or a prima donna.

Of all composers, past and present, I am the least learned. I mean that in all seriousness, and by learning I do not mean knowledge of music.

Oh blessed a thousand times the peasant who is born, eats and dies without anybody bothering about his affairs.

Through care taken over trends, the desire to be novel and affectation knowledge, we repudiate our art, our instinct, our own way of doing things; it is absurd and stupid

Why did someone fall in love with you because you were one thing, and then want you to be something else?

Love is to love, be loved, and lost.Never to be enclosed in mortal hands.

Acting is a very strange industry in that it flows in these weird ways, I'll be so busy for 6 months and then nothing for a couple months, so it's hard for me to focus and stuff.

For decades, we've been told that it doesn't make economic sense to switch to renewable energy. Today, that's no longer true.

If I want to do action, you don't really get to do it. They don't let you, there's too much on the line to let you jump out of a building.

No, I'm too tired to run, and you're too fast. You'd only catch me." "That's right, luv." Softly, but with unyielding resonance. "if you run from me, I'll chase you. And I'll find you. Bones said.

An advantage to volleyball is that you have a scoreboard to tell how you have done as a team. The thing is, in life there is no scoreboard, at least not one that you can see.

The world asks, How much does he give? Christ asks why does he give?

If he had another hair on his back, he'd be up a tree.

I thought Eddie Redmayne portrayed me very well... At times I thought he was me.