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

Music must serve a purpose; it must be a part of something larger than itself, a part of humanity.

As long as one can admire and love, then one is young forever.

To retire is to begin to die.

I used to think that eighty was a very old age. Now I am ninety. I do not think this any more. As long as you are able to admire and to love, you are young.

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

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