"But the thing that will always occupy me the most is music"
About this Quote
The subtext is a portrait of a particular kind of musician: not the flamboyant virtuoso chasing the spotlight, but the obsessive craftsman who lives inside repertoire. Fischer-Dieskau’s career was built on that interior intensity, especially in Lieder, where interpretation is less about volume than about microscopic choices - diction, color, breath, what to do with a single consonant. Saying music will “always” occupy him is also a way of admitting that the work is never finished. A song can be “done” in performance and still remain unsolved in the mind.
Context sharpens the stakes. A German artist born in 1925 carries history in his body whether he names it or not: war, rupture, the moral pressure on postwar culture to rebuild meaning without grand illusions. Against that backdrop, “music” becomes an alternative to ideology and biography. Not escape, exactly - more like a discipline that outlasts politics and ego. It’s a modest sentence with a hard edge: attention is his allegiance, and he’s already decided where it will go.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Fischer-Dieskau, Dietrich. (2026, January 15). But the thing that will always occupy me the most is music. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-the-thing-that-will-always-occupy-me-the-most-155343/
Chicago Style
Fischer-Dieskau, Dietrich. "But the thing that will always occupy me the most is music." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-the-thing-that-will-always-occupy-me-the-most-155343/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"But the thing that will always occupy me the most is music." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-the-thing-that-will-always-occupy-me-the-most-155343/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.




