I was a God-fearing child, innocent and physically attractive.

It's like everything in life: if they're physically attractive, they have an advantage.

I am so fresh in soul and spirit that life gushes and bubbles around me in a thousand springs.

My indifference to money and my spendthrift ways are disgraceful. You have no idea how reckless I am; how often I practically throw money out of the window. I am always making good resolutions, but the next minute I forget and give the waiter eightpence.

An evil fate has deprived me of the full use of my right hand, so that I am not able to play my compositions as I feel them. The trouble with my hand is that certain fingers have become so weak, probably through writing and playing too much at one time, that I can hardly use them.

Talent works, genius creates.