One sniffed at what I spat, the second tapped where I spat from, and the third sounded me and listened as I spat. вЂњThe three most celebrated doctors on the island have been to see me. I only try to express the soul and the heart of man.вЂќ вЂњBach is an astronomer, discovering the most marvellous stars. вЂњEvery difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on.вЂќ вЂњI really don't know whether any place contains more pianists than Paris, or whether you can find more ***** and virtuosos anywhere.вЂќ вЂњI am gay on the outside, especially among my own folk (I count Poles my own) but inside something gnaws at me some presentiment, anxiety, dreams - or sleeplessness - melancholy, indifference - desire for life, and the next instant, desire for death some kind of sweet peace, some kind of numbness, absent-mindedness.вЂќ вЂњNothing is more odious than music without hidden meaning.вЂќ in this respect this is a savage country.вЂќ How did you send it? By Marseilles or by Perpignan? I dream music but I cannot make any because here there are not any pianos. вЂњHere, whatever is not boring is not English.вЂќ Is she really a woman? I'm inclined to doubt it.вЂќ Indeed there is something about her which positively repels me. вЂњI have met a great celebrity, Madame Dudevant, known as George Sand. and I had to come back and bow four times.вЂќ I inform your Lordship that I was not a bit nervous and played as I play when I am alone. You cannot imagine what a torture the three days before a public appearance are to me.вЂќ вЂњThey want me to give another concert but I have no desire to do so. Indeed, I write to you from a strange place.вЂќ Bach, my scrawls and waste paper - silence - you could scream - there would still be silence. The cell is the shape of a tall coffin, with an enormous dusty vaulting, a small window.

вЂњIt's a huge Carthusian monastery, stuck down between rocks and sea, where you may imagine me, without white gloves or hair curling, as pale as ever, in a cell with such doors as Paris never had for gates.

Chopin music quotes