Will Daddy never come back even if I keep shouting: "Dear Daddy, dear Daddy!"
(Three-year-old Sibelius as described in Aunt Evelina's letter, 1868)

My mother was the good angel of our home. The care of the children meant everything to her, she lived for us, and with us. An extraordinarily warm person.
(Karl Ekman’s biography of JS, 1935)

Until I was fifteen, I was the great Nimrod. I could roam the forests and meadows for days on end.
(Karl Ekman’s biography of JS, 1935)

When my songs were transposed [to a higher pitch] they became quite different. When I was child we had a square piano which was about three-quarters of a tone flat. My whole word was contained in it, and when we got a new piano (the one Heidi has today) with normal tuning, everything was shattered. I felt alienated from the piano and began to move over to the violin side.
The fact that the new piano in my childhood home had a tuning that was strange to me may be the reason why – except for pieces like Kyllikki and the accompaniment to Malinconia – almost everything I’ve written for the piano could be called a salon piece.
(To Jussi Jalas, 19th May 1940)

Even as a schoolboy I played a great number of quartets, which is why I got to grips with the sonata form so early.
(To Jussi Jalas, autumn 1945)