Pianists don't argue too much generally because we have a hard enough time just getting things right. Arguing is for string players.

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

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.

If there were no rules about when to applaud, we in the audience would have the right response almost always.

Mozart often wrote to his family that certain variations or sections of pieces were so successful that they had to be encored immediately, even without waiting for the entire piece to end.

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.

We should welcome applause whenever it comes.