“I know of only one composer who measures up to Beethoven, and that is Bruckner.”
“Da Vinci painted one Mona Lisa. Beethoven composed one Fifth Symphony. And God made one version of you.”
“Part of what Brahms and others could never quite get over was that Bruckner the composer of epic symphonies behaved, much of the time, like a nincompoop.”
“Beethoven speaking to royalty: "What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven.”
“Not a single one of the cells that compose you knows who you are, or cares.”
“There are and always will be thousands of princes, but there is only one Beethoven!”