I don’t choose what I compose. It chooses me.
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.
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.
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.
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.