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.

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.

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 a free person; I feel terribly free. They could put me in chains and I still would be free because my thoughts would be mine - and that's all I want to have.

You cannot play the piano well unless you are singing within you.

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

Sometimes when I sit down to practice and there is no one else in the room, I have to stifle an impulse to ring for the elevator man and offer him money to come in and hear me.