Extreme volume in music very often disguises a lack of actually important content.

The way you survive in the performing arts is by having a sense of your audience, and doing things which entertain and satisfy the audience, but in a more important way, cause the audience to question many things.

The big difference between human happiness and sadness? Thirty-seven freakin' vibrations.

Part of my big message with all this is that if you are alive, you know all you need to know about the message of classical music, because more than any other music, it is about the way life really is.

But without the experience of actually singing or playing these things yourself, you don't have the same kind of involvement or understanding of what these musical moves mean. And that is a very big problem in addressing the future of music.

If you're curious, if you have a capacity for wonder, if you're alive, you know all that you need to know [about music].

Being an American musician means being adventurous.