Top 135 Wagner Quotes & Sayings

I'm sure the atmosphere at Tanglewood and the space there and nature - I think it absolutely fits Wagner's music.

I grew up taking piano lessons and liking Wagner when I was in second grade.

We've been listening to Wagner, which is so great.

They see me all the time at Bayreuth and think I only like Wagner's music, and it's not true.

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

Wagner exploited all forms of expression at a composer's disposal - harmony, dynamics, orchestration - to the extreme. His music is highly emotional, and at the same time Wagner has extraordinary control over the effect he achieves.

As Mark Twain said, 'I love Wagner -- if only they'd cut out all that damned singing!'

Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.

A Schubert song, the A-major chord at the opening of Wagner's 'Lohengrin' - such incredible beauty is a mystery, the divinity of music.

He (Honus Wagner) was the nearest thing to a perfect player no matter where his manager chose to play him.

I am honored to have John Lloyd called the Black Wagner. It is a privilege to have been compared with him.

Robert Wagner was my greatest crush.

I maintain that Western popular culture at its best is worthy of respect and should be cherished as much as the operas of Wagner.

Everyone says you have to be a specialist, and if you conduct Wagner you cannot conduct Mozart - this is nonsense.

In Bach, Beethoven and Wagner we admire principally the depth and energy of the human mind; in Mozart, the divine instinct.

Please write music like Wagner, only louder.

There are probably many people in Israel who believe that Wagner, who died in 1883, lived in Berlin in 1942 and was friends with Hitler.

The way to get a ball past (Honus) Wagner is to hit it eight feet over his head.

I love you, Michael Wagner.” “Forever?” he asked. “Forever,” I said.

I dig Strauss and Wagner, those cats are good...

Richard Wagner commenting on the music of Ludvig Van Beethoven: He was a Titan, wrestling with the Gods.

To play opera, to play Wagner, it's a great joy.

Wagner is the Puccini of music.

I simply love Wagner's music. That actually started very early. He was the first composer I was exposed very much to because my parents introduced me to Wagner's music very early.

I think I have a pretty good ear. I mean, even just starting with, like, Austin Powers, where I did young Robert Wagner. People were, like, "How do you imitate Robert Wagner? What does he sound like? What does that even involve?".

Wagner festival was [Adolf Hitler] time with the Wagner family. [Eva Braun] asked once to attend but he forbade it and that was that, she never asked again.

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

Wagner is a composer who has beautiful moments but awful quarter hours.

Mr. Wagner has beautiful moments but bad quarters of an hour.

Remember, Those who have the gift of faith are growth-oriented, goal-oriented, optimistic, and confident. – C. Peter Wagner.

They tell me Wagner's music is better than it sounds.

...there isn't often anything in Wagner opera that one would call by such a violent name as acting.

One can't judge Wagner's opera Lohengrin after a first hearing, and I certainly don't intend to hear it a second time.

Richard Wagner, a musician who wrote music which is better than it sounds.

Western culture is what gave us Mozart, and Da Vinci, and Wagner, and Beethoven.

To be in a position to help my family out and change the trajectory of the Wagner family it's a pretty dope feeling.

You might say that Richard Wagner was the Queen Victoria of Europe. He had musical children everywhere!

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

Striker Sandro Wagner is very strong, a true No. 9, who really made his mark playing with Germany in the Confederations Cup.

Is Wagner a human being at all? Is he not rather a disease? He contaminates everything he touches - he has made music sick.

The score is doing a lot of work. It's like Wagner. It's like a yak carrying people.

And my singing, I don't think I could sing Wagner or opera, but I could probably carry a tune. I was in a musical once, but it was never performed.

Wagner used to read the libretti of his operas to his friends; I am glad I was not there.

Wagner's philosophy had absolutely nothing to do with Bruckner. Bruckner hadn't written a single word against Jews. Wagner's book on the Jews was one of the most infamous books of the 19th century.

Most of the dramatism in Wagner comes from a very close link between the music and the language of the text. So much of the expressivity of Wagner's music dramas comes from the singers' capacity to play with the sound of the language. This kind of thing you can do very well in concert performance.

I name (Honus) Wagner first on my list, not only because he was a great batting champion and base-runner, and also baseball's foremost shortstop, but because Honus (Wagner) could have been first at any other position, with the possible exception of pitcher. In all my career, I never saw such a versatile player.

Wagner manages to convey emotion with music better than anyone, before or since.

There's a man in Mobile who remembers that Honus Wagner hit a triple in Pittsburgh 46 years ago. That's baseball.

Did Wagner really accomplish the first step towards the kitschy 'fetishization' of music that reaches its apogee in classical Hollywood?

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

I thought of America as Natalie Wood and Bob Wagner sprawled on the edge of a Hollywood swimming pool biting into the same red apple.

I find little in the works of Beethoven, Berlioz, Wagner and others when they are led by a conductor who functions like a windmill.

After conducting Wagner, Beethoven's triple concerto is like taking an Alka Seltzer.

The music of Wagner imposes mental tortures that only algebra has the right to inflict.

I like Wagner's music better than anybody's. It is so loud that one can talk the whole time without other people hearing what one says.

I did not care for Wagner. My tastes are more classical. Der Fuhrer had no musical taste and liked Wagner because of the bombastic Teutonic glories.

Wagner has lovely moments but awful quarters of an hour.

I love Wagner, but the music I prefer is that of a cat hung up by its tail outside a window and trying to stick to the panes of glass with its claws.

Whoever wants to understand National Socialist Germany must know Wagner.

My stepfather was quite into opera, but he'd play it when he was in a bad mood, so you'd hear this boom through the floor, Wagner, and you'd feel nervous.