George Bernard Shaw,
Love Among the Artists — Book I, Chapter X
(1881)
“ Old Beethoven once asked a pupil whether he really considered him a good composer. Shakespeare, as far as I can make out, only succeeded about half-a-dozen times in his attempts at play writing. Do you suppose he didn't know it?" "Then why do you blame Adrian for his diffidence?""Ah! that's a horse another color. He thinks himself worse than other men, mortal like himself. I think myself a fool occasionally, because there are times when composing music seems to me to be a ridiculous thing in itself. Why should a rational man spend his life in making jingle-jingle with twelve notes? ”
