A Bachelor, In My Opinion, Is Only

People Err Who Think My Art Comes Easily To Me. I Assure You, Dear Friend, Nobody Has Devoted So Much Time And Thought To Compositions As I. There Is Not A Famous Master Whose Music I Have Not Industriously Studied Through Many Times.

True Perfection In All Things Is No Longer Known Or Prized - You Must Write Music That Is Either So Simple A Coachman Could Sing It, Or So Unintelligble That Audiences Like It Simply Because No Sane Person Could Understand It.

It Is When I Am, As It Were, Completely Myself, Entirely Alone, And Of Good Cheer.....that Ideas Flow Best And Most Abundantly. Whence And How They Come, I Know Not, Nor Can I Force Them.

As Death, When We Come To Consider It Closely, Is The True Goal Of Our Existence, I Have Formed During The Last Few Years Such Close Relationships With This Best And Truest Friend Of Mankind That Death's Image Is Not Only No Longer Terrifying To Me, But Is Indeed Very Soothing And Consoling, And I Thank My God For Graciously Granting Me The Opportunity...of Learning That Death Is The Key Which Unlocks The Door To Our True Happiness.

The Taste Of Death Is Upon My Lips. I Feel Something That Is Not Of This Earth.