Top 15 Richard Strauss Quotes

“What do I think of Jazz? Jazz is royal concert in the palace of King Attila! The original negro melodies from which it is derived are sublime, but Jazz —" said Dr.Strauss shrugging his shoulders.

I ask myself why I have actually survived once more and been called back to life.

Please start from the Bruch violin concerto again!

Strauss told me about his new ballet, which he wrote in the summer. It’s called ‘Schlagobers’ (whipped cream) and he said, jokingly: ‘Oh yes, when one gets old one has ideas like that.’

It is difficult composing endings. Beethoven and Wagner could do it. Only great composers can do it. I can do it too.

Long live the politico-satrical-parodistic opera!

Man (in B major) asks: When? When? Nature, (in C Major) answers from the depths Never, never, never will the weather improve".

Declarations about war and politics are not fitting for an artist, who must give his attention to his creations and his works.

More like a sacrilege du printemps.

Very fine, but why do you put so many wrong notes in? Basically, it is all built on simple triads.

It is clear to me that the German nation will achieve new creative energy only by liberating itself from Christianity

I hope, most revered Maestro, that these metronome markings, in my opinion wholly unneeded by you, are specific enough. Where they do not fit with your conception, I implore you urgently just to ignore them.

Thirty years ago I was regarded as a rebel, but to-day, as you see, I have lived to find myself a classic.

Why don't people see what is new in my work, how in them, as is found only in Beethoven, the human being visibly plays a part in the work.

I am not one to compose long melodies as did Mozart. I can’t get beyond short themes. But what I can do, is utilize such a theme, paraphrase it and extract everything that is in it, and I don’t think there’s anybody today who can match me in that.