I wish I could score everything for horns.

I wish I could score everything for horns.

Even if I know I shall never change the masses, never transform anything permanent, all I ask is that the good things also have their place, their refuge.

Richard Wagner, a musician who wrote music which is better than it sounds.

Imagination creates reality.

Joy is not in things; it is in us.

Wherever the fish are, that's where we go.

I am fond of them, of the inferior beings of the abyss, of those who are full of longing.

Divorce is one of the most financially traumatic things you can go through. Money spent on getting mad or getting even is money wasted.

Never look at the trombones, it only encourages them.

I write music with an exclamation point!

I hate this fast growing tendency to chain men to machines in big factories and deprive them of all joy in their efforts - the plan will lead to cheap men and cheap products.

I have long been convinced that my artistic ideal stands or falls with Germany. Only the Germany that we love and desire can help us achieve that ideal.

I am convinced that there are universal currents of Divine Thought vibrating the ether everywhere and that any who can feel these vibrations is inspired.

Achievements, seldom credited to their source, are the result of unspeakable drudgery and worries.

Everything lives and lasts by the inner necessity of its being, by its own nature's need.

Here, everything is tragic through and through, and the will, that fain would shape a world according to its wish, at last can reach no greater satisfaction than the breaking of itself in dignified annulment.

How absurd these critics must seem to me, who in their modern wantonness have become so ingenious. They want to interpret my Tannhauser as specifically Christian and impute to him a tendency to impotent glorification!

I can't distract myself enough here, for sketches to a new opera are constantly buzzing around in my head, to the extent that I need all my strength to wrest myself from them.

I have only a mind to live, to enjoy - i.e., to work as an artist, and produce my works; but not for the muddy brains of the common herd.

I was in a state of gnawing, sensuous agitation that excited continually both blood and nerves when I sketched out the music for 'Tannhauser' and brought it to completion.

In no State is there a weightier law than that which centers its stability in the supreme hereditary power of one particular family, unconnected and un-commingling with any other lineage in that State.

Life is earnest - and always has been.

The measures and acts which show us violently disposed towards the outer world can never stay without a violent reaction on ourselves.

The patriot subordinates himself to his State in order to raise it above all other States and thus, as it were, to find his personal sacrifice repaid with ample interest through the might and greatness of his fatherland.

Though German art can never be Bavarian, but simply German, yet Munich is the capital of this German Art; here, under shelter of a Prince who kindles my enthusiasm, to feel myself a native and member of the people was, to me, the homeless wanderer, a deep, a genuine need.

We find personal success and great, if not enduring, influence on the outer fashioning of the world allotted to the violent, the passionate individual who, unchaining the elemental principles of human impulse under favoring circumstances, points out to greed and self-indulgence the speedy pathways to their satisfaction.

What manner of thing this 'public opinion' is, should be best known to those who have its name forever in their mouths and erect the regard for it into a positive article of religion. Its self-styled organ in our times is the 'Press.'

The only form of music is melody, without melody music is not feasible, and music and melody are quite inseparable.

It has been well said that a hungry man is more interested in four sandwiches than four freedoms.

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear.

You say 'African music' and you think 'tribal drumming.' But there's a lot of African music that's like James Brown, and a lot, too, that sounds very Hispanic.

Media, the plural of mediocrity.

A bicycle ride is a flight from sadness.

Taking responsible steps to reduce poverty is not merely a moral imperative but an economic one.

Redemption is possible, and it is the measure of a civilized society.

To know that once you decide to look at life outside of the narrow limits of just your world and start to understand that you can make a difference in very simple ways - in volunteering and all the way up to bigger world problems.

On the edge of destiny you must test your strength.

Life stinks, but that doesn't mean you don't enjoy it.

If I don't have room for an item, I put it in warehouses.

My schedulers keep getting driven crazy by the fact that they can't fit hikes in my schedule.

I think it sits quite happily with me, the condition of being an actor. I see some people getting quite eaten up with it, with the insecurities. There are times when I long for continuity and stability, but I also love the idea of not knowing what I'll be doing next - or even if I'm going to work.

God comes first. Paradise is not cheap.

I think there is choice possible to us at any moment, as long as we live. But there is no sacrifice. There is a choice, and the rest falls away. Second choice does not exist. Beware of those who talk about sacrifice.

You are bound, my hunch is, to make it just fine.

The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them.

I have been both praised and criticized. The criticism stung, but the praise sometimes bothered me even more. To have received such praise and honors has always been puzzling to me.

If I'm honest I have to tell you I still read fairy-tales and I like them best of all.

I did dancing and singing when I was little, and then when I was 12 years old my friends were taking speech and drama at school. They were private lessons, and I started doing that. Over the years everyone else dropped out and I just kept going. I loved it.