Great Throughts Treasury

"Art is not an end in itself, but a means of addressing humanity."

"Thanks to nanny, I've got a deep understanding of Russian tales."

"My music must be an artistic reproduction of human speech in all its finest shades. That is, the sounds of human speech, as the external manifestations of thought and feeling must, without exaggeration or violence, become true, accurate music."

"In poetry there are two giants, rough Homer and fine Shakespere. In music likewise we have two giants, Beethoven, the thinker, and the superthinker Berlioz."

"I regard the people as a great being, inspired by a single idea. This is my problem. I strove to solve it in this opera."

"This deep feeling for the soul of common people; their life became the main impulse for musical improvisation before I learned the basics in piano."