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

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

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

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

My teacher, my great cello teacher Leonard Rose, was such a great cellist, and nurturing man, very patient. But I grew up not only admiring him, but obviously Casals, Rostrotovich, Jacqueline du Pre, and many others, including many of my peers and contemporaries.

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.