Give me a laundry-list and I'll set it to music.

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

Wagner has lovely moments but awful quarters of an hour.

Wagner's music has some wonderful moments but awful half hours.

Answer them [critics] with silence and indifference. It works better, I assure you, than anger and argument. . . .

One cannot judge 'Lohengrin' from a first hearing, and I certainly do not intend to hear it a second time.