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I don't choose what I compose. It chooses me.

Gustav Mahler

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Gustav Mahler
Age: 50 †
Born: 1860
Born: July 7
Died: 1911
Died: May 18
Classical Composer
Composer
Conductor
Musician
Mahler
Compose
Chooses
Choose

More quotes by Gustav Mahler

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Beauty and fullness of tone can be achieved by having the whole orchestra play with high clarinets and a carefully selected number of piccolos.
Gustav Mahler
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Melodic invention is one of the surest signs of a divine gift.
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I don't let myself get carried away by my own ideas I abandon 19 out of 20 of them every day.
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When I have reached a summit, I leave it with great reluctance, unless it is to reach for another, higher one.
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It's not just a question of conquering a summit previously unknown, but of tracing, step by step, a new pathway to it.
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Fortunately, something always remains to be harvested. So let us not be idle.
Gustav Mahler
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Behind me the branches of a wasted and sterile existence are cracking.
Gustav Mahler
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To write a symphony is, for me, to construct a world.
Gustav Mahler
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It is always the same with me only when I experience something do I compose, and only when composing do I experience! After all, a musician's nature can hardly be expressed in words.
Gustav Mahler
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I beg of you... never assume an inner or an outer pose, never a disguise.
Gustav Mahler
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Both my marriages were failures! Number one departed, and number two stayed
Gustav Mahler
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I have become a different person. I don't know whether this person is better, he certainly is not happier.
Gustav Mahler
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Don't bother looking at the view - I have already composed it.
Gustav Mahler
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God can only be comprehended as Love.
Gustav Mahler
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It is easier to achieve a desired result in short pieces.
Gustav Mahler
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Only when I experience do I compose - only when I compose do I experience.
Gustav Mahler
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An operetta is simply a small and gay opera.
Gustav Mahler
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In Bach, the vital cells of music are united as the world is in God.
Gustav Mahler
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I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way.
Gustav Mahler
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I am thrice homeless, as a native of Bohemia in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, and as a Jew throughout the world. Everywhere an intruder, never welcomed.
Gustav Mahler