"I adore art... when I am alone with my notes, my heart pounds and the tears stream from my eyes, and my emotion and my joys are too much to bear"
About this Quote
The phrasing “alone with my notes” is doing quiet work. Verdi isn’t talking about premieres, patrons, or applause; he’s describing the sealed room where art is made before it becomes commodity, before it becomes national culture, before it becomes “Verdi.” In 19th-century Italy, that distinction is loaded. Verdi’s music was braided into the Risorgimento era’s political identity-making, yet he’s insisting that the engine is intimate, almost unbearable feeling, not slogans.
There’s subtext, too, about the cost of making something that moves other people: you pay for the public’s release with your own private saturation. “Too much to bear” doesn’t romanticize suffering as a brand; it suggests a kind of creative excess, where joy and grief are indistinguishable at the moment of invention. The quote works because it punctures the myth of the composed genius. Verdi’s authority isn’t cool control; it’s vulnerability disciplined into form.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Verdi, Giuseppe. (2026, January 15). I adore art... when I am alone with my notes, my heart pounds and the tears stream from my eyes, and my emotion and my joys are too much to bear. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-adore-art-when-i-am-alone-with-my-notes-my-117493/
Chicago Style
Verdi, Giuseppe. "I adore art... when I am alone with my notes, my heart pounds and the tears stream from my eyes, and my emotion and my joys are too much to bear." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-adore-art-when-i-am-alone-with-my-notes-my-117493/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I adore art... when I am alone with my notes, my heart pounds and the tears stream from my eyes, and my emotion and my joys are too much to bear." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-adore-art-when-i-am-alone-with-my-notes-my-117493/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.





