Gustav Mahler

When I have reached a summit, I leave it with great reluctance, unless it is to reach for another, higher one.

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

The impressions of the spriritual experiences gave my future life its form and content.

The further the music develops, the more complex the apparatus used by the composer to express his thoughts becomes.

It is strange how one feels drawn forward without knowing at first where one is going.

It is easier to achieve a desired result in short pieces.

If I weren't the way I am, I shouldn't write my symphonies.

I live like a Hottentot. I cannot exchange one sensible word with anyone.

I also had a brother who was like me a musician and a composer. A man of great talent, far more gifted than I. He died very young... he killed himself in the prime of his life.

Behind me the branches of a wasted and sterile existence are cracking.

The spirit can assert itself only through the medium of clear form.

There is a world of difference between a Mahler eighth note and a normal eighth note.

It should be one's sole endeavor to see everything afresh and create it anew.

I was a crazy young man who let himself be blinded by his passions and obeyed only the impulses of the moment.

You must renounce all superficiality, all convention, all vanity and delusion.

Never let oneself be guided by the opinion of one's contemporaries. Continue steadfastly on one's way.

The call of love sounds very hollow among these immobile rocks.

What I wanted and what I visualized while composing has not always been realized.

I hope you will no longer accuse me of a lack of delicacy. as I now count on your understanding.

The longer you live and the more you learn, the more clearly you will feel the difference between the few men who are truly great and the mere virtuosi.