You can't expect someone born into a family with no music...to understand when I'm conducting the Schönberg Variations.

To me, the ideal artist-to-audience relationship is a one-to-zero relationship. The artist should be granted anonymity.

I cannot bear assaults of any kind, and it seems to me that the Beatles essentially were out to affront and to assault.

In fact, among the 1000 titles which I have recorded in the past 35 years, there are less than 10% of classical titles.

I have no style, because I change each time . . . each day I play differently. Today I play differently than yesterday.

Creativity is an inherent human quality of the highest order. When we create, we become more than the sum of our parts.

When it comes down to music, I have no balance. I am 100 percent. It is like full throttle. Five hundred miles an hour.

The Steinway piano is the most harmonious implement for musical intention. It completes what is beautiful and artistic.

The Steinway piano is such an incomparable instrument. Due to its virtues, I am able to express all my musical feelings.

I know so many Irish musicians. They're all over, because there has been so much emigration from Ireland. Like the Jews.

I'm an energetic walker. I don't believe in jogging, but I walk a lot. I walk in New York. It's much faster than a limo.

I have no trouble with y enemies. But my god damn friends... they are the ones that keep me walking the floors at night.

Silence... is the essence of the music itself, the vital ingredient that makes it possible for the music to exist at all.

Call you up in the middle of the night. It's awful hard trying to make love long distance, but I really need stimulation.

An Israeli who thinks that his government is doing everything right wouldn't join the Divan Orchestra in the first place.

You can't expect someone born into a family with no music... to understand when I'm conducting the Schoenberg Variations.

Playing and listening to music gives you a sense of fulfilment because you have to put everything in you at its disposal.

You used to queue for three days and two nights for tickets for Rubinstein. People stayed in the queue for the whole day.

I did write a letter to the archdiocese who'd banned the song, Only the Good Die Young, asking them to ban my next record.

Beethoven in c minor has come to symbolize his artistic character...where he seems to be most impatient of any compromise.

If you want to get an education in how to get a story and how to survive, then get a street reporter job in New York City.

My mother played piano at home; she came from a musical family. Her father, who I never met, was a conductor and composer.

An artist can only be evaluated after he's dead. At the 11th hour he might do something that will eclipse everything else.

Everything I chose, I had already played in concert. For the competition, I wanted to pick pieces I know that people like.

False notes [on the piano] are human. Why does everything have to be perfect? You know, perfection itself is imperfection.

I have a great need to learn what the norm is by dealing with what is not the norm... with the grotesque and the fantastic.

Say goodbye to the oldies, but goodies, because the good old days weren't always good and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems

Children in schools need to have something to do with music and learn it the way they do literature, geography and biology.

I am always exhausted; I am always trying to find more time to be with my family, which is why they travel with me so much.

The piano by its black and white keys always attracted me, my father showed me how to use... and slowly I got into playing.

Don't play everything (or every time); let some things go by... What you don't play can be more important than what you do.

I run around so much that I finally reasoned that composing is the one musical endeavour which you can do anywhere, anytime.

No end to sorrow, caused by the same endless fears. Why can't we learn from all we've been through after two thousand years?

And the only people I fear are those who never have doubts... Save us all from arrogant men, and all the causes they're for.

My studio is right on the ocean, and the sun rises right in my eyes every morning, and the energy of the sea is right there.

The Steinway piano - with its beauty and power - is the perfect medium for expressing the performer's art, drama and poetry.

My mother loved everyone she came in contact with. She always shared her love and was able to heal those around her with it.

The good news is when you open up in Vegas, you have a lot of friends, because they all come over to see your opening night.

In every heart there is a room, A sanctuary safe and strong, To heal the wounds from lovers past, Until a new one comes along

People in music lie, but they don't expect you to believe them. People in television actually expect you to believe the lies.

Germany will never be a real, free thinking and free feeling friend of Israel, because it will always fall under this shadow.

I think it's normal that for a part of your life you have a lot of questions, and you're interested in all possible theories.

Being happy with less is what makes a great human being, not a big house with marble floors, or everyone knowing who you are.

More and more, we're used to taking things in through the eyes rather than through the ears, and opera is more of a spectacle.

In some situations I was difficult, in odd moments impossible, in rare moments loathsome, but at my best unapproachably great.

To be alive, to able to see, to walk...it's all a miracle. I have adapted the technique of living life from miracle to miracle.

Learning and performing music have been rewarding, both physically and mentally. They helped me to mature and grow as a person.

If you establish an identity, you build a monster-and thats right, youve got to live with it. Of course, you can enjoy it, too.

I am so happy that I didn’t go to school and I didn’t have anyone to tell me how to position my fingers on the piano correctly.

I am so happy that I didn't go to school and I didn't have anyone to tell me how to position my fingers on the piano correctly.

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