The words: Hanno ammazzato compare Turiddu! (They have killed Neighbor Turiddu!) were forever ringing in my ears.

I needed a few mighty orchestral chords to give characteristic form to the musical phrase and achieve an impressive close.

How it happened I don't know, but one morning, as I was trudging along the road to give my lessons at Canosa, the idea came to me like a stroke of lightning, and I had found my chords.

They were those seventh chords, which I conscientiously set down in my manuscript.
Thus I began my opera at the end.

When I received the first chorus of my libretto by post (I composed the Siciliano in the prelude later) I said in great good humor to my wife: "To-day we must make a large expenditure." "What for ?" "An alarm clock." "Why ?" "To wake me up before dawn so that I may begin to write on 'Cavalleria rusticana.'" The expenditure caused a dubious change in the monthly budget, but it was willingly allowed.