I think the purpose of a piece of music is significant when it actually lives in somebody else. A composer puts down a code, and a performer can activate the code in somebody else. Once it lives in somebody else, it can live in others as well.

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

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 anybody who goes away finds you appreciate home more when you return.

One is that you have to take time, lots of time, to let an idea grow from within. The second is that when you sign on to something, there will be issues of trust, deep trust, the way the members of a string quartet have to trust one another.

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

Sharing is a much better way to communicate than proving.