It took great courage to ask a beautiful young woman to marry me. Believe me, it is easier to play the whole Petrushka on the piano.

Life is the game that must be played, this truth at least, good friends, we know; so live and laugh, nor be dismayed as one by one the phantoms go.

People are always setting conditions for happiness... I love life without condition.

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

Even when I'm sick and depressed, I love life.

Never sound pompous. You always sound noble, noble. Absolute character of music is nobility. Even popular music can be noble, you see. If it's not noble, then it's not very good... Music is an art of emotion, of nobility, of dignity, of greatness, of love, of tenderness. All that must be brought out in music but never a show of pompousness.

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