The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another... and leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world.

Music, because of its specific and far-reaching metaphorical powers, can name the unnamable and communicate the unknowable.

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.

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?

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.

Success is all very well as long as you don't inhale.