Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.

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

One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.

Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?

Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.

I'm very happy to hear that my work inspires writers and painters. It's the most beautiful compliment, the greatest reward. Art should always be an exchange.

Music is mediator between spiritual and sensual life.

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

It's so sweet, I feel like my teeth are rotting when I listen to the radio.

Music is the literature of the heart; it commences where speech ends.

And, in the end The love you take is equal to the love you make.

And I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinking.

Art is never finished, only abandoned.

One thing that really appeals to me is this idea of music being a living thing that has an evolution that, in a way, enables the artist to sell a process rather than a piece of product.

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

The spoken form is in fact a very restrained representation of what is possible in the musical language.

Each song is a child I nourish and give my love to. But even if you have never written a song, your life is a song. How can it not be?

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it.

I think another thing is that we don't really want exclusivity. We accept that it is in the artist's interest to be on sale in every place where they sell music.

The absence of limitations is the enemy of art.

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.