The real geniuses know where their writing has to be good and where they can get away with some mediocrity.

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

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

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.

Well-lit streets discourage sin, but don't overdo it.

Life is here to be enjoyed, your smile and your happiness makes it even better".

Of course it's true: the public want to see young people - young people are the people who go to the cinema. It's a sad fact of life, but you've got to accept it and not whine about it.

I've liked most of the films that I've been in and those are the kinds of films I like to see.

I was never given a trial. I never went before any magistrate, nor did my parents. To this day, I do not know what the charges that were lodged against me or my deceased parents at this time.

The great and admirable strength of America consists in this, that America is truly the American people.

I'm a fighter as a mother. I'm fighting to be a mother, but I cannot say no to my passion because it's me, as well.

Sometimes I have a great day of filming and sometimes the theater strikes me better. It just depends.

We don't work for each other, We work with each other.