Why attack God? He may be as miserable as we are

The musician is perhaps the most modest of animals, but he is also the proudest. It is he who invented the sublime art of ruining poetry.

Before I compose a piece, I walk around it several times, accompanied by myself.

I liked the bit about quarter to eleven. (on Debussy's "Dawn to Noon on the Sea")

When I was young, I was told: 'You'll see, when you're fifty. I am fifty and I haven't seen a thing.

I think the best compliment you can receive is not, 'Oh, that was really funny,' but, 'Is that the first time you said that?' It's something that you've said a thousand times, but if somebody says to you, 'Oh my God, is that the first time you've done that?' you know that performance was where you wanted it.