...we can all shut-up and go back to our caves.

I'm not interested in having an orchestra sound like itself. I want it to sound like the composer.

Life without music is unthinkable. Life without music is academic. That is why my contact with music is a total embrace.

In the olden days, everybody sang. You were expected to sing as well as talk. It was a mark of the cultured man to sing.

Einstein said that "the most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious." So why do so many of us try to explain the beauty of music, thus depriving it of its mystery?

Which of my Jewish roots do I follow?

It is hard to think of another composer who so perfectly marries form and passion.