The true art of memory is the art of attention.

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

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

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

Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.

Artistic temperament is a disease that afflicts amateurs.

Rhythm is something you either have or don't have, but when you have it, you have it all over.

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

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.

The music industry can make you feel like a prostitute.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth.

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

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

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

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