I always find it funny when people say, "I don't really like classical music" or "it doesn't do anything for me." I tell them, "Well, you know, it does. You go to films and you're responding to it, and you've heard it..." It's controlling you! So don't think you're not being affected. It's a great medium for music.

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

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.

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.

I grew up in a musical family, but nobody was a professional musician.

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