Never look encouragingly at the brass, except with a brief…

I want to be able to depict in music a glass of beer so accurately that every listener can tell whether it is a…

— Richard Strauss

Never look at the trombones, you'll just encourage them.

— Richard Strauss

Never look at the brass - it only encourages them.

— Richard Strauss

The human voice is the most beautiful instrument of all, but the most difficult to play.

— Richard Strauss

The aria, after all, is the soul of opera.

— Richard Strauss

don't perspire while conducting - only the audience should get warm.

— Richard Strauss

Must one become seventy years old to recognize that one's greatest strength lies in creating musical kitsch?

— Richard Strauss

He'd be better off shoveling snow.

— Richard Strauss

On conducting: If you can just barely hear the French horns on stage, the balance is perfect.

— Richard Strauss

I shall never be converted, and I shall remain true to my old religion of the classics until my life's end.

— Richard Strauss

Never let the horns and woodwinds out of your sight; if you can hear them at all, they are too loud.

— Richard Strauss

Ideas, like young wine, should be put in storage and taken up again only after they have been allowed to ferment and to ripen.

— Richard Strauss

I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer.

— Richard Strauss

Never look at the trombones. You'll only encourage them.

— Richard Strauss

Bear in mind that you are not making music for your own pleasure, but for the pleasure of your audience.

— Richard Strauss