Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.
It was sad music. But it waved the sadness like a battle flag. It said the universe had done all it could but you were still alive.
It is far easier to play a thing quickly than slowly; some notes may then be dropped without being observed. But is this genuine music?
Is Wagner a man at all? Is he not rather a disease? Everything he touches he makes morbid – he has made music morbid.
In memory everything seems to happen to music.
In an opera the poetry must necessarily be the obedient daughter of the music.
In a dialogue these things are natural enough, for a few words can be hurriedly said aside, but in an aria, where the words must be repeated, it has a bad effect; and even were this not the case, I should prefer an uninterrupted aria.
If you really don’t enjoy the type of music I make and that’s not you, OK. But don’t say I’m not talented. If you haven’t noticed, I wasn’t made — I was found.
If one plays good music, people don’t listen, and if one plays bad music people don’t talk.
If music be the food of love, play on.
If it’s illegal to rock ‘n’ roll, throw my ass in jail!
If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. … I cannot tell if I would have done any creative work of importance in music, but I do know that I get most joy in life out of my violin.
