Competition can be the most nerve-racking experience. Some people just thrive on it.

I look at raising funds for The Perlman Music Program as a challenge and as a way to provide opportunities for people who care about the future of classical music.

I find personally that when I go to a place where I can't get in, I feel hostility from whatever it is, a hotel, a shop, a market, a street corner where there are no curb cuts, because somebody forgot to put them in, and where I have to go two blocks to the corner to do it. A lot of the excuses are, "Well, this is an old building." That's my favorite one. "This is an old building." It's as though 50 years ago, people with disabilities did not exist. As if the disabled are a new problem. It has always been a problem.

Another thing that I don't like to do is show too much how it goes. I do it once in a blue moon. Sometimes there are lessons when I don't pick up a violin at all.

When you talk about a million bucks, if you think about it very carefully, it's not that much money, if you start to divide it. You have to figure out a philosophy as to whom you want to give it to.

The most important thing to do is really listen.

There are people who are uncanny, who are finished products at a young age. I wasn't, thank God.