I can only hope that neither of them was scarred by their upbringing.

I would never have become music director of the Chicago Symphony, which would have been an extremely sad loss.

Fight the tendency to become complacent and do one kind of music - that is the death of a musician.

Everyone says you have to be a specialist, and if you conduct Wagner you cannot conduct Mozart - this is nonsense.

My entire learning process is slow, because I have no visual memory.

But one day, when I was still young, I was parted from my family and left my native country. I hunted and searched for music, and destiny turned me into the object of my hunt. The circumstances of life became my 'antlers' and prevented me from returning home.

The experience awakened 'my tremendous musical ambition, which has never subsided to this day.