The genius is the man who has genuine and deep human relations with others, who does not cut himself off in the search for originality, but who realizes the value of artistic tradition.

There have been a few moments when I have known complete satisfaction, but only a few. I have rarely been free from the disturbing realization that my playing might have been better.

Music is the only art that actually lives.

When one is an artist, what else can he be?

If I do not practice one day; I know it. If I do not practice the next, the orchestra knows it; if I do not practice the third day, the whole world knows it.

Beginnings play their prized part in every finished human accomplishment, for beginnings mean the birth of added progress.

Fatherland before everything, art afterward.