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

Love life and life will love you back. Love people and they will love you back.

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.

I am tired before the concert, not afterward.

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.

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.