Arturo Toscanini Quotes & Sayings

After I die, I shall return to earth as a gatekeeper of a bordello and I won't let any of you enter. — Arturo Toscanini

To some it is Napoleon, to some it is a philosophical struggle, to me it is allegro con brio. — Arturo Toscanini

Can't you read? The score demands 'con amore', and what are you doing? You are playing it like married men! — Arturo Toscanini

If you want to please the critics, don't play too loud, too soft, too fast, too slow. — Arturo Toscanini

When I was young, I kissed my first woman and smoked my first cigarette on the same day. Believe me, never since have I wasted any more time on tobacco. — Arturo Toscanini

I hate you all because you destroy my dreams! — Arturo Toscanini

Liberty, in my opinion, is the only orthodoxy within the limits of which art may express itself and flourish freely-liberty that is the best of all things in the life of man, if it is all one with wisdom and virtue. — Arturo Toscanini

To Strauss the composer I take off my hat; to Strauss the man I put it back on again. — Arturo Toscanini

God tells me how the music should sound, but you stand in the way. — Arturo Toscanini

After conducting a concert in a small town, I once received the following note from a farmer who had attended the performance: "Dear Sir, I wish to inform you that the man who played the long thing you pull in and out only did so during the brief periods you were looking at him." — Arturo Toscanini

I kissed my first girl and smoked my first cigarette on the same day. I haven't had time for tobacco since. — Arturo Toscanini