Growing up in Hollywood, like I did, I have a passion and a love for the movies, so I go to the cinema all the time.

I don't really think about retiring. I will retire just before people start saying, 'I knew Leonard Slatkin when he conducted well.

A music director cannot and should not be chosen on the basis of a first date. It is not so difficult to make a good impression with a single appearance, usually containing some of a conductor's party pieces, works they have performed successfully many times before.

The life of any musician really doesn't fall into a normal schedule at all. Every week there are different rehearsals, different days and nights of performances, so we don't have a particular pattern that we can follow. For a conductor, it is a little bit worse because we have to allow for traveling.

How could a New Yorker possibly take something called the Hollywood String Quartet seriously?

I'm beginning to see that just knowing the piece is not enough. Having a clear technique is not enough. Having a broad repertory is not enough. I want desperately to get past all those things.

We are a global society, and one does not have to be from Germany to give a great performance of Beethoven.