“Life is a series of boring interludes between meals.”

“The applause was so loud and insistent that I had to respond with several encores. I was numb with happiness, when it was over, I knew that this alone must be my life and my world.”

“I feel as though I have lived many lives, experienced the heights and depths of each and like the waves of the ocean, never known rest. Throughout the years, I looked always for the unusual, for the wonderful, for the mysteries at the heart of life.”

“Die Idee der Schönheit ist die Idee der unendlichen Traurigkeit; die Idee dessen, was hätte sein können.”

“I set about seeking a thread, a theme, a style, in the realm of legend. Something that might allow me to give free rein to my juvenile sense of romanticism and the beautiful image.”

“I am fascinated by what is beautiful, strong, healthy, what is living. I seek harmony.”

“Life for the Italians was what it was, no more and no less, an interlude between meals”