Dear friend,
Herr Halbert tells me you want my overture to Goethe's Faust. As I know of no reason to withhold it from you except that it no longer pleases me, I send it to you, because I think that in this matter the only important question is whether the overture pleases you. If the latter should be the case, dispose of my work; only I should like occasionally to have the manuscript back again. You will now have to go through capellmeister agonies of the first quality; so I can imagine, and my work is just the kind of thing for that to one who takes a loving interest in it. Learn to know these sufferings; they are the daily bread I eat. May God give you strength and joy in your hard work.
Richard Wagner
Source: Project Gutenberg eBook #3835, Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt — Volume 1, No. 4