96 Quotes by Gustav Mahler

It is a funny thing, but when I am making music, all the answers I seek for in life seem to be there, in the music. Or rather, I should say, when I am making music, there are no questions and no need for answers.

I don’t choose what I compose. It chooses me.

The point is not to take the world’s opinion as a guiding star but to go one’s way in life and working unerringly, neither depressed by failure nor seduced by applause.

Spring won’t let me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again.

Both my marriages were failures! Number one departed, and number two stayed.

If you think you’re boring your audience, go slower not faster.

To judge a composer’s work, one must consider it as a whole.

The important thing is never to let oneself be guided by the opinion of one’s contemporaries; to continue steadfastly on one’s way without letting oneself be either defeated by failure or diverted by applause.

Life’s been nothing but paperwork.