Liszt expresses the hope of actually getting performers for Siegfried, and writes to me of a commission to compose the work, backed up by an adequate payment in advance. I have nothing to say against finishing Siegfried for Liszt and the theatre of Weimar as soon as I am assured of the possibility of performance. In the end, I suppose, I shall make the music. This man Liszt is really too touching. A good deal of me remains strange and incomprehensible to him, and yet his love makes him go as gingerly to work with me as if I were a raw egg, makes him absolutely disown himself rather than even touch me in the least roughly! That really is worth something!
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 182