'There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.'

'If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.'

'To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.'

'I have nothing to say - and I am saying it - and that is poetry - as I needed it.'

'There is nothing I can say about the technique behind the music because it doesn't interest me.'

'...in almost all cultures other than the European classical one, the real meaning of the music is in between the notes.'

'When a man is in despair, it means that he still believes in something.'

'If there is anyone here whom I have not insulted, I beg his pardon.'

'Brahms' Variations are better than mine, but mine were written before his.'

'Every element has a sound, an original sound from the order of God; all those sounds unite like the harmony from harps and zithers.'

'People don't very much like things that are beautiful.. they are so far from their nasty little minds.'

'Play always as if in the presence of a master.'

'Artists like Bach and Beethoven erected churches and temples on the heights. I only wanted...to build dwellings for men in which they might feel happy and at home.'

'Pay no attention to what the critics say. A statue has never been erected in honor of a critic.'

'To play without passion is inexcusable!'

'They want me to write differently. Certainly I could, but I must not. God has chosen me from thousands and given me, of all people, this talent.'

'Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.'

'You may have the universe if I may have Italy.'

'These talking machines are going to ruin the artistic development of music in this country.'

'I don't use folklore, I am the folklore.'