I like having my hair and face done, but I'm not going to lose weight because someone tells me to. I make music to be a musician not to be on the cover of Playboy.

The opera is to music what a bawdy house is to a cathedral.

Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.

Of all the music that reached farthest into heaven, it is the beating of a loving heart.

Music for me, it demands full concentration.