The longer you live and the more you learn, the more clearly you will feel the difference between the few men who are truly great and the mere virtuosi.
If I weren’t the way I am, I shouldn’t write my symphonies.
In the theatrical works we love and admire the most, the ending of the drama generally takes place offstage.
It’s not just a question of conquering a summit previously unknown, but of tracing, step by step, a new pathway to it.
Only when I experience do I compose – only when I compose do I experience.
God can only be comprehended as Love.
An operetta is simply a small and gay opera.
I hope you will no longer accuse me of a lack of delicacy. as I now count on your understanding.
I live like a Hottentot. I cannot exchange one sensible word with anyone.
I am thrice homeless, as a native of Bohemia in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, and as a Jew throughout the world. Everywhere an intruder, never welcomed.
It is easier to achieve a desired result in short pieces.
It is always the same with me; only when I experience something do I compose, and only when composing do I experience! After all, a musician’s nature can hardly be expressed in words.
Never let oneself be guided by the opinion of one’s contemporaries. Continue steadfastly on one’s way.
When I have reached a summit, I leave it with great reluctance, unless it is to reach for another, higher one.
What I wanted and what I visualized while composing has not always been realized.
To judge a composer’s work, one must consider it as a whole.
The spirit can assert itself only through the medium of clear form.
I don’t choose what I compose. It chooses me.
Man lives in greatest pain.
The important thing is never to let oneself be guided by the opinion of one’s contemporaries; to continue steadfastly on one’s way without letting oneself be either defeated by failure or diverted by applause.