“The trouble is if you don’t spend your life yourself, other people spend it for you.”

“Look... to go through life and call it yours - your life - you first have to get your own pain. Pain that's unique to you. You can't just dip into the common bin and say 'That's enough!'...”

“Look, life is only comprehensible through a thousand local gods... spirits of certain trees, of certain curves of brick walls, of certain fish and chip shops if you like. And slate roofs, and frowns in people, and slouches... I'd say to them, "Worship all you can see, and more will appear...”

“You have your words, and I have mine.”

“Tell me, before you call us servants, who served whom? And who, I wonder, in your generations, will immortalize you?”

“Do you know what it's like for two people to live in the same house as if they were in different parts of the world?”

“Emperor Joseph II: My dear young man, don't take it too hard. Your work is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that's all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect.Mozart: Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?”