[A TV reporter] wanted to know how I came to terms with a Jew-hater like Richard Wagner. I replied spontaneously: ‘There were, and there are, many fine people on earth, but none of them has written Tristan or Meistersinger.’ … And I also read that the great Jewish musician, Hanns Eisler, had asked for the score of Tristan und Isolde on his deathbed.
—Marcel Reich-Ranicki, The Author of Himself: The Life of Marcel Reich-Ranicki
