Egotistical composers: the best big-headed musical quotes
They're responsible for creating some of the world's masterpieces... so who can blame our favourite composers for being a tad arrogant from time to time? Stubborn, self-righteous, and egotistical, explore the best quotations from the musicians who consider themselves to be greatest of all time.
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1. Egotistical quotes: Beethoven
Beethoven: "Prince, what you are, you are by the accident of birth; what I am, I am of myself. There are and there will be thousands of princes. There is only one Beethoven."
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2. Egotistical quotes: Berlioz
Berlioz: "My life is to me a deeply interesting romance."
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3. Egotistical quotes: Sibelius
Sibelius: "Pay no attention to what critics say; there has never been a statue set up in honour of a critic."
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4. Egotistical quotes: Mozart
Mozart: "A man of superior talent (which I cannot deny myself to be without being impious) will go to pieces if he remains forever in the same place!"
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5. Egotistical composers: Brahms
Brahms: "If there is anyone here whom I have not insulted, I beg his pardon."
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6. Egotistical quotes: Haydn
Haydn: "But all the world understands my language!"
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7. Egotistical composers: Stravinsky
Stravinksy: "I don't write modern music. I only write good music."
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8. Egotistical composers: Rossini
Rossini: "Give me a laundry list and I'll set it to music."
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9. Egotistical quotes: Wagner
Wagner: "I must have beauty, splendour and light. The world ought to give me what I need!"
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10. Egotistical composers: Cage
Cage: "I have nothing to say and I am saying - and that is poetry."
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11. Egotistical quotes: R. Strauss
R. Strauss: "What I'd like best of all, time and time again, is to set myself to music."
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12. Egotistical quotes: Tchaikovsky
Tchaikovsky: "Oh, how difficult it is to make anyone see and feel in music what we see and feel ourselves."
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13. Egotistical composers: Vaughan Williams
Vaughan Williams: "It looks wrong, and it sounds wrong; but it's right."
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14. Egotistical composers: Copland
Copland: "If a literary man puts together two words about music, one of them will be wrong."
