[...] I have undertaken to set to work to finish The Nibelungs at once and to produce it within three years. Everything is ready for a supreme effort. Shall I survive it? I do not think about that!—
My wonderful young King lifts me as if on clouds and I must [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 594