I don't have hobbies. I have passions.

The cello is like a beautiful woman who has not grown older, but younger with time, more slender, more supple, more graceful.

When we play an unaccompanied Bach suite we may compare ourselves to an actor in Shakespeare's day, creating scenery which did not exist at all, through the power of declamation and suggestion. So in Bach. There is but one voice -- and many voices have to be suggested.

I am an old man but in many senses a very young man. And this is what I want you to be, young, young all your life.

Beauty is all about us, but how many are blind! They look at the wonder of this earth and seem to see nothing. People move hectically but give little thought to where they are going. They seek excitement ... as if they were lost and desperate.

The heart of the melody can never be put down on paper.

For me, Bach is like Shakespeare. He has known all and felt all. He is everything.