If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.
It is a funny thing, but when I am making music, all the answers I seek for in life seem to be there, in the music. Or rather, I should say, when I am making music, there are no questions and no need for answers.
Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.
There is a world of difference between a Mahler eighth note and a normal eighth note.
The impressions of the spriritual experiences gave my future life its form and content.
A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.
The point is not to take the world’s opinion as a guiding star but to go one’s way in life and working unerringly, neither depressed by failure nor seduced by applause.
But it’s peculiar, as soon as I am in the midst of nature and by myself, everything that is base and trivial vanishes without trace. On such days nothing scares me; and this helps me again and again.
What is best in music is not to be found in the notes.
You must renounce all superficiality, all convention, all vanity and delusion.
Spring won’t let me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again.
In Bach, the vital cells of music are united as the world is in God.
I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way.
Melodic invention is one of the surest signs of a divine gift.
If you think you’re boring your audience, go slower not faster.
I was a crazy young man who let himself be blinded by his passions and obeyed only the impulses of the moment.
Don’t bother looking at the view – I have already composed it.
With the coming of spring, I am calm again.
Fortunately, something always remains to be harvested. So let us not be idle.
A full cup of wine at the right time is worth more than all the kingdoms of this earth!