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

Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.

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.

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.

When you were young, and your heart, was an open book. You used to say, live and let live.

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

The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.

Being a celebrity has taught me to hide, but being an actor has opened my soul.

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.

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

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

Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The earth has music for those who listen.

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