Giuseppe Verdi

I am a peasant, and I speak as a peasant.

Torniamo all'antico, e sarà un progresso. (Let us return to old times, and that will be progress.)

I adore art... when I am alone with my notes, my heart pounds and the tears stream from my eyes, and my emotion and my joys are too much to bear.

You may have the universe if I may have Italy.

The opera is long, that's true, but it's just right for me.

I want neither a laurel wreath nor a marble statue; I want a glass of good wine.

They say my music is too noisy. Let them say it. I write as I feel.

I am not a learned composer, but I am an experienced one.

The public is always right.

I have no imagination. I need a cannon to make me write.

I am not a learned man; I am a peasant.

I love art, but I love Italy more.

I prefer the song of a thrush to the voice of a soprano.

I have always been a man of few words, and I like to keep it that way.

To copy the truth is a good thing, but to invent the truth is better.

I am not a man of the theater, but a man of the land.

It is always better to be a good man than a great composer.

I have no desire for fame, only for peace.

I am a man of my time, and I write music for my time.

I hate all forms of theorizing about art.