You go through phases. You have to reinvent reasons for playing, and one year's answer might not do for another.

With every year of playing, you want to relax one more muscle. Why? Because the more tense you are, the less you can hear.

I think of a piece of music as something that comes alive when it is being performed, and I feel that my role in the transmission of music is to be its best advocate at that moment.

The tradition of classical music and the opera is such that it used to be the place where social intercourse could take place between all parts of society: politicians, industrialists, artists, citizens, etc. That tradition, I think, still exists, but it's much, much more diluted.

My involvement in the political arena is to make sure there's a place for culture.

I remember when I was growing up. My great wish was to understand who I was and how I fit in the world.

There's a part of me that's always charging ahead. I'm the curious kid, always going to the edge.