"Oh, now we were
dedicated to Night!
Spiteful Day
with ready envy
could part us with its tricks
but no longer mislead us with guile.
Its vain glory,
its flaunting display
are mocked by those to whom Night
has granted sight."

-Tristan

 

"As I have never in life felt the real bliss of love, I must erect a monument to the most beautiful of all my dreams, in which, from beginning to end, that love shall be thoroughly satiated. I have in my head 'Tristan and Isolde,' the simplest, but most full-blooded musical conception. With the black flag which floats at the end of it I shall cover myself to die."

-Richard Wagner in a Letter to Liszt