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.

The 20th century has been a badly written drama, from the beginning.

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

A work of art does not answer questions, it provokes them; and its essential meaning is in the tension between the contradictory answers.

To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.

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

Technique is communication: the two words are synonymous in conductors.