Singers come and go, but if you're a good actor, you can last a long time

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

I can't listen to that much Wagner. I start getting the urge to conquer Poland.

I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.

Nature scarcely ever gives us the very best; for that we must have recourse to art.

I accept chaos, I'm not sure whether it accepts me.

The true art of memory is the art of attention.

The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.

You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.

Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.

A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.

Let silence be the art you practice.

I passionately hate the idea of being with it, I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.

Real popular culture is folk art - coalminers' songs and so forth.

I have a genuine love affair with my audience. When I`m on stage they`re not privileged to see me. It`s a privilege for me to see them.

Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it.

Critics are the men who have failed in literature and art.

Comedy is the blues for people who can?t sing.

Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.

Art is always and everywhere the secret confession, and at the same time the immortal movement of its time