If nobody likes your work, you have to go on just for the sake of the work. And you're in no danger of letting the public make you repeat yourself. Every artist ought to pray that he may not be "a success". If he's a failure he stands a good chance of concentrating upon the best work of which he's capable.

Remark to Clifford Bax, reported in Imogen Holst Gustav Holst: A Biography (1969) p. 81.