When you play Bach like Chopin, and Chopin like Bach, something good happens.

For twelve years I studied and worked at them every day, and I was nearly 25 before I had the courage to play one of them in public. Before I did, no violinist or cellist had ever played a Suite in its entirety.

The only weapons I ever had were my cello and my baton.

Of course, I continue to play and to practice. I think I would do so if I lived for another hundred years.

Let us not forget that the greatest composers were also the greatest thieves. They stole from everyone and everywhere.

How could anybody think of Bach as 'cold' when these [cello] suites seem to shine with the most glittering kind of poetry," Casals said. "As I got on with the study I discovered a new world of space and beauty... the feelings I experienced were among the purest and most intense in my artistic life!

The art of interpretation is not to play what is written.