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

Bach takes you to a very quiet place within yourself, to the inner core, a place where you are calm and at peace.

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.

One of the things I love about music is live performance.

When we have a good balance between thinking and feeling... our actions and lives are always the richer for it.

People will ask, 'Are you famous?' And I always answer, 'My mother thinks so.'

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