And in English you have this wonderful difference between listening and hearing, and that you can hear without listening, and you can listen and not hear.

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

I'm sure that there are many Israelis who dream of waking up one day to find the Palestinians gone. And there are many Palestinians who dream of going to bed at night and waking up the next morning to find the Israelis gone.

You can't expect someone born into a family with no music...to understand when I'm conducting the Schönberg Variations.

Sound is often talked about in a very subjective way, as if it had a colour. This is a bright sound, this is a dark sound. I don't believe in that because I think that is much too subjective.

Tradition demands that we not speak poorly of the dead.

I can't stand being in Chicago anymore and hearing the Brahms Violin Concerto in the elevator. Because that shows me that when they come to the concert hall they listen to it in the same way.