Sergei Rachmaninov
Quotations

"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music."

 

"I have never been able to make up my mind as to what was my true calling -- that of composer, pianist, or conductor ... I am constantly troubled by the misgiving that, in venturing into too many fields, I may have failed to make the best use of my life."

 

"My outlook is a product of temperament, and so it is Russian music. I have never consciously attempted to write Russian music, or any other kind of music."

 

"When the coughing increases, I leave out the next variation. If there is no coughing, I play them in order ... The record so far is 18 variations, in New York."

 

"In my own compositions, no conscious effort has been made to be original, or Romantic or Nationalistic, or anything else. I write down on paper the music I hear within me, as naturally as possible...What I try to do, when writing down my music, is to make it say simply and directly that which is in my heart when I am composing. "