"I like to compose, but I hate to write it out."

"It was impossible for me to say to men speak louder, shout, for I am deaf."

"It is a fact that I have always placed my personal freedom before everything else."

"I despise the world because it does not understand that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy."

"I have no friend. I must live alone. I know that I am closer to God than other artists; I commune with Him in my art."