There is something very special about this part of the world [U.S], which is the openness and the curiosity and the lack of prejudice and the lack of generally accepted norms as to what art should be and how an artist's career should go and all that.
Esa-Pekka SalonenI discovered that the people of the North are different and there's no way you can make a person from the North similar to a Southerner. They're two different worlds.
Esa-Pekka SalonenOur industry [classic music] has kind of retarded into this kind of endless cover-producing thing, and it's a pity.
Esa-Pekka SalonenI think truth as an idea should be left to the philosophers and perhaps religious leaders and politicians, and professional people who deal with that idea.
Esa-Pekka Salonen