Capitalism, communism ... it's all garbage.

Explain to me, please, why in our literature and art so often people absolutely incompetent in this field have the final word.

When I started learning the cello, I fell in love with the instrument because it seemed like a voice - my voice.

I never studied, but I had the best teachers.

It is my aim, my destination in life to make the cello as beloved an instrument as the violin and piano.

Now I want to use money in a good way. I make foundations back home in Russia, I have sponsored vaccinations for more than one million children in my homeland and I have founded scholarships in the names of my great Russian compatriots - Oistrakh, Richter, Gilels, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Schnittke.

I would rather have ideas and some difficulties of technique than a perfect technique and no ideas.