“Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.”

“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.”

“With the coming of spring, I am calm again.”

“Spring won't let me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again.”

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

“In its beginnings, music was merely chamber music, meant to be listened to in a small space by a small audience.”

“To create art with all the passion in one's soul is to live art with all the beauty in one's heart.”

“art is risk made visible”

“Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.”

“Do you want this to be a love story?”

“It's all talk til it's all real walk.”

“Some things are only real because they represent what we think. When we learn the truth and think it, the old reality is no longer real to us and loses its hold on us. The truth sets us free.”

“Any performer tries to perform music as if for the first time, with all that energy and excitement that comes from discovering a new piece--maybe trying to recreate the memory of falling in love wi...”