My grandfather was not a musician but he was an artist - a painter, a decorative painter.

Once, in London, the BBC asked me what was my favorite English book. I said Alice in Wonderland

But if you go from Moscow to Budapest you think you are in Paris.

I think it was when I was nineteen, by that time the Jewish laws were already in force and the split was beginning to come about which isolated the Jewish culture.

It isn't false modesty when I say this, but although I am supposed to be a famous person it doesn't mean anything to me. I just sit at home and work.

I like to stay home and listen to recordings.

I listen to all kinds of music - new music, old music, music of my colleagues, everything.