I am an unusual thing. I have no soul and no body. One cannot see me but can hear me. I do not exist for me alone. Only a human being can give me life as often as he wishes. And my life is only of short duration, for I die almost at the moment I am born.
And so, according to man's caprice, I may live and die untold times a day. To those who give me life I do nothing, but those on whose account I am born I leave with painful sensations for the short duration of my life; of my life till I depart.
I am appointed to a situation which will afford me leisure to write music just to please myself. And I feel capable of doing something worthy of the fame I've acquired. But instead, I must die.
Mozart's words three days before his death - from a reported conversation in English between Constanze Mozart and V. Novello.