Music has just as much to do with movement and body as it does soul and intellect.

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.

Conducting was just something that happened by fluke.

This country, and the West Coast, especially, is bad at preserving any cultural legacy.

There's so much energy exchange [in conduction], so you get back a lot, of course, but you also have to give a lot. It's kind of high-energy thing.

Every orchestra I know, every opera house I know, is desperately looking around trying to find new talent, new composing talent, supporting young composers, supporting new ideas, supporting new ways of getting the message across.

In Europe, there is so much tradition, and everyone has established ideas as to what art should be and what it has always been.