I've been traveling all over the world for 25 years, performing, talking to people, studying their cultures and musical instruments, and I always come away with more questions in my head than can be answered.

I think that peace is, in many ways, a precondition of joy.

In performance, we have a greater purpose. The greater purpose is that we're communing together, and we want this moment to be really special for all of us. Because otherwise, why bother to have come at all? It's not about proving anything. It's about sharing something.

As a child, you respond physically, tactically. You're delighted by sound, you're delighted by recognizing something. It's like hide and seek. Is it there? Is it not there? Is it this note? Is it not this note? It's one fantastic game.

You must have a reason to be in the places to which you go, and you must do only things that you really care about.

Music is one of the ways we can achieve a kind of shorthand to understand each other.

When people ask me how they should approach performance, I always tell them the professional musician should aspire to the state of the beginner.