The sheer force of the music calls for a wild audience reaction.

Everyone is different. Sometimes it's very exciting; sometimes very scary.

I think competition in any kind of activity like music, art, literature - anything that's not done with a timer - is actually impossible. So, in effect, what you're doing is you're entering the lottery. You're hoping that you play well (and that) you play your best on the day that you're heard, and you're hoping that the people who are judging will like what you do.

All of us love applause, and so we should - it means that the listener likes us!

Applause should be an emotional response to the music, rather than a regulated social duty.

I have been trying to find out exactly when listeners and performers decided that applause between movements would not be allowed, but nobody seems to have been willing to admit that they were the culprit.

Sometimes I wish that applause would come just a bit later, when it is so beautifully hushed that I feel like holding my breath in the silence of the end.