Fatherland before everything, art afterward.

America, the country of my heart, my second home.

True originality has its foundations in the soul, not in the mind, and when there is an effort to create something different it is usually a failure. Beethoven or Schumann or Chopin did not try to be original. They were original.

The ultimate necessity is the summoning of the mind and will to do their duty.

When I miss a week in practice, my audience knows it. When I miss a day, I know it.

I established a certain standard of behavior, that, during my playing, there must be no talking.

Art is the expression of the immortal part of man.