"A painter paints his pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. We provide the music, and you provide the silence."

“Stokowski at The University of Pennsylvania”

“I understand you are doing "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." I would love to do that for you. I will do it for nothing.”

“It is my profound wish that this entire collection shall be devoted to the advancement of fine music for the continued enjoyment of music enthusiasts throughout the United States, be they students of the arts, performing artists, or members of that vast audience of music lovers among the American public.”

“On matters of intonation and technicalities I am more than a martinet— I am a martinetissimo.”

“As a boy I remember how terribly real the statues of the saints would seem at 7 o'clock Mass-before I'd had breakfast. From that I learned always to conduct hungry.”

“I simply make music, and people have always been foolish enough to pay me for it. I never told them that I would have done it all for nothing. CBS TV 1976”