So much of performing is a mind game.

The best way to refine an interpretation is by getting out and performing.

I was lucky enough to have parents who started me on music very early, but most kids don't get that kind of exposure.

I open up my violin case every day, and have one of the great creations. It is very inspiring. It makes you want to practice. How can you open up a case and look at a violin that was made in 1713 by one of the greatest artists in history and then say, "No, I don't feel like practicing today."

At a music hall, I'll get upset if someone coughs or if someone's cellphone goes off.

We live in the least ugly time in history. If you look at back when Beethoven was writing, half the kids were dying, mothers were dying at childbirth, there were more wars going on then than there are now. People wrote the most beautiful things during the ugliest times.

I never had any real expectations about what sort of success I would have or all the publicity.