There are some great teachers who have had great students, but they themselves can't play a note. I don't understand it, because the most I learned from my teacher was just hearing him play.

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.

Kids need to be structured in some way, but you don't want to force something down their throats that they have no interest in.

No one tells you what to do if you completely flop at the beginning of a performance.

I want to do everything. That's my problem.

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

You only live once, so I try to say yes to everything.