When I am with composers, I say I am a conductor. When I am with conductors, I say I am a composer.

Children must receive music instruction as naturally as food, with as much pleasure as they derive from a ball game, and this must happen from the beginning of their lives.

Mozart's music is constantly escaping from its frame, because it cannot be contained in it.

Music, of all the arts, stands in a special region, unlit by any star but its own, and utterly without meaning ... except its own.

Conducting is like making love to a hundred people at the same time.

Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time... The wait is simply too long.

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