"The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self."

"I consider myself a craftsman, not a genius."

"I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse."

"We in Russia have our Trotskys, and I myself should be highly annoyed if anyone were to take them for authentic Russians."

"He [Rachmaninov] was a six and a half foot scowl."