Ring Cycle Quotes

[on Richard Wagner] A beautiful sunset that was mistaken for a dawn.

I hate you, Richard Wagner . . . but I hate you on my knees.

For me Wagner is impossible... he talks without ever stopping. One can't just talk all the time.

I just can't listen to any more Wagner, you know...I'm starting to get the urge to conquer Poland.

If people had told me that I would have the stamina to conduct 'Ring Cycles,' I would have been amazed. I still am.

Wagner has some great moments, but a lot of miserable half hours.

The first 'Ring' in Bayreuth was about the poetical world, the mythological world.

I have witnessed and greatly enjoyed the first act of everything which Wagner created, but the effect on me has always been so powerful that one act was quite sufficient; whenever I have witnessed two acts I have gone away physically exhausted; and whenever I have ventured an entire opera the result has been the next thing to suicide.