The seasons are what a symphony ought to be: four perfect movements in harmony with each other.

What good are vitamins? Eat a lobster, eat a pound of caviar - live! If you are in love with a beautiful blonde with an empty face and no brains at all, don't be afraid. Marry her! Live!

At every concert I leave a lot to the moment. I must have the unexpected, the unforeseen. I want to risk, to dare. I want to be surprised by what comes out. I want to enjoy it more than the audience. That way the music can bloom anew. It's like making love. The act is always the same, but each time it's different.

When I play, I make love – it is the same thing.

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

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

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.