You must play for the love of music. Perfect technique is not as important as making music from the heart.

I came to Moscow when I was 5 years old from Baku. To walk all night in Moscow will bring back my youth to me.

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

I never studied, but I had the best teachers.

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

Baalbek is so beautiful. It is the heart of beauty in the Middle East - I want to embrace these people with my music. I will try so hard for them. Their president is a Christian, their prime minister is a Muslim. Music is for everyone.

There is too much emphasis on technical perfection nowadays, and not enough on what music is actually about - irony, joy, human suffering, love.