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

Art is permitted to survive only if it renounces the right to be different, and integrates itself into the omnipotent realm of the profane.

Art not only imitates nature, but also completes its deficiencies.

Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music.

Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.

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

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

Once you become predictable, no one's interested anymore.

The absence of limitations is the enemy of art.

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.

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

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

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

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.

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

I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to.

The earth has music for those who listen.

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?

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.

Artistic temperament is a disease that afflicts amateurs.