I don't believe that the entire world is constantly anti-Semitic.

Music means different things to different people and sometimes even different things to the same person at different moments of his life.

The Steinway piano is such an incomparable instrument. Due to its virtues, I am able to express all my musical feelings.

In times of totalitarian or autocratic rule, music (indeed culture in general) is often the only avenue of independent thought. It is the only way people can meet as equals, and exchange ideas. Culture then becomes primarily the voice of the oppressed and it takes over from politics as a driving force for change.

To have real knowledge, one must understand the essence of things and not only their manifestations.

Wagner exploited all forms of expression at a composer's disposal - harmony, dynamics, orchestration - to the extreme. His music is highly emotional, and at the same time Wagner has extraordinary control over the effect he achieves.

Israel's strategy cannot be to constantly confront the Palestinians with the history of the Holocaust, but instead to show them that Israel is a reality.