I like the plot of The Nutcracker - not at all..

Even in the works of the greatest master, the organic sequence can fail and then a skillful join must be made..

I have put my whole soul into this work [The Pathetique Symphony] . . . You cannot imagine what joy I feel at the thought that my days are not yet ov….

Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy..

Madam, you ask me how I compose. I compose sitting down..

Sometimes I observe with curiosity that uninterrupted activity which, independent of the subject of any conversation I may be carrying on, continues ….

To regret the past, to hope in the future, and never to be satisfied with the present: that is what I spend my whole life doing.

Only music clarifies, reconciles, and consoles. But it is not a straw just barely clutched at. It is a faithful friend, protector, and comforter, and….

The muse doesn't come without being called..

If that condition of mind and soul, which we call inspiration, lasted long without intermission, no artist could survive it. The strings would break ….

Where the heart does not enter; there can be no music..

Truly there would be reason to go mad were it not for music..

The creative process is like music which takes root with extraordinary force and rapidity.

…You see, my dear friend, I am made up of contradictions, and I have reached a very mature age without resting upon anything positive, without having….

How can one express the indefinable sensations that one experiences while writing an instrumental composition that has no definite subject? It is a p….

A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood..

There is no doubt that even the greatest musical geniuses have sometimes worked without inspiration. This guest (inspiration) does not always respond….

Mozart is the highest, the culminating point that beauty has attained in the sphere of music..

It is already a great thing if the main ideas and general outline of a work come without any racking of brains, as the result of that supernatural an….

Brahms stayed an extra day to hear my [Fifth] Symphony and was very kind ... I like his honesty and open-mindedness. Neither he nor the players liked….

When Brahms is in extra good spirits, he sings, "The grave is my joy"..