I deny that either singers or conductors can create or work creatively – this, as I have always said, is a conception that leads to the abyss.

Through care taken over trends, the desire to be novel and affectation knowledge, we repudiate our art, our instinct, our own way of doing things; it is absurd and stupid.

Our mistake, you see, was to write interminable large operas, which had to fill an entire evening. And now along comes someone with a one or two-act opera without all that pompous nonsense – that was a happy reform.

I have striven for perfection, it has always eluded me, but I surely had an obligation to make one more try.

To copy the truth can be a good thing, but to invent the truth is better, much better.

It is better to invert reality than to copy it.

It may be a good thing to copy reality; but to invent reality is much, much better.

The success of our operas rests most of the time in the hands of the conductor. This person is as necessary as a tenor or a prima donna.

Through care taken over trends, the desire to be novel and affectation knowledge, we repudiate our art, our instinct, our own way of doing things; it is absurd and stupid

Stupid criticism and still more stupid praise.