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.

Every day brings a chance for you to draw in a breath, kick off your shoes, and dance.

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

Music should be something that makes you gotta move, inside or outside

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

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.

Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.

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

Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.

Music melts all the separate parts of our bodies together.

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

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.

Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.

Poets and heroes are of the same race, the latter do what the former conceive.

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.

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.

The only escape from the miseries of life are music and cats...

Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.

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

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