Sometimes I think, not so much am I a pianist, but a vampire. All my life I have lived off the blood of Chopin.

I'm passionately involved in life: I love its change, its color, its movement. To be alive, to be able to see, to walk, to have houses, music, paintings - it's all a miracle.

Composing a concert is like composing a menu.... If you start with light pieces and play a 45-minute sonata after the interlude, it's like starting dinner with hors d'oeuvres and dessert and finishing with a Châteaubriand and vegetables.

When I was young, I used to have successes with women because I was young. Now I have successes with women because I am old. Middle age was the hardest part.

We only begin to live life when we learn to accept it on its own terms.

I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.

I am tired before the concert, not afterward.