Bruckner's associates report other comments that the composer is said to have made about the symphony. The coda to the first movement is "how it is when one is on his deathbed, and opposite hangs a clock, which, while his life comes to an end, beats on ever steadily: tick, tock, tick, tock"Korstvedt, p. 52 while in the slow movement "I have gazed too deeply into a maiden's eyes".
