I always had, deep down, a slight aversion toward the purely cerebral in music.

I can't imagine how many first performances I've done, perhaps 500. Some of them have been very good, and some of course very bad.

If I were in a position to announce a public competition to coin a new word, I would do so right now.

Stravinsky is masterly: his harmony is conceived so precisely that it can only be the way it is.

It would be very tempting to say that why paint because we have Michelangelo, we have Leonardo [Da Vinci], we have all these guys. Why waste your time, because most likely you're not going to be on that level anyway.

Our audience, it has been a more difficult process for classical music audiences around the world, and I'm not completely certain why.

Every day we make more progress toward understanding the concert hall.