Although I am flexible and ready to take advice, I can't carry an umbrella of thoughts over my head that would distract me and affect my music making.

I love rap because it talks about pain that comes authentically from the ghetto. It moves me.

I knew at university that medicine was just not for me. I saved many lives by not being a doctor!

A woman's life in the orchestra is not as long as a man's; she is just not as good at 60 as a man is at 60.

It's hard to find an emblem of cultural, national pride that burns as bright as Israel's success in classical music.

In this art form, in any art form, generalities are useless.

In truth, I became a conductor because deep down I wanted to conduct Brahmss four symphonies and Richard Strausss tone poems.

I feel that the critic and music director should have such a good relationship they can pick up the phone and call each other any time.

There are three orchestras in Munich, all world-quality, in a city of one million. Yet every hall is full.

Rock music is predictable, unless theres great talent involved.

I am jealous of all those people who live on the shore of Dal Lake.

Nobody is smarter than you are. And what if they are? What good is their understanding doing you?

Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.

They say you should not suffer through the past. You should be able to wear it like a loose garment take it off and let it drop.

It's such an amazing thing to be loved for who you are.

People say, "How do you write songs?" I say, "Patience." I may have a track that's hot, but no words. I'll just let it sit for years, because I know they're going to meet. They'll find it.

Life consists not simply in what heredity and environment do to us, but in what we make out of what they do to us

Pure logic could never lead us to anything but tautologies; it can create nothing new; not from it alone can any science issue.

Everything that's cool that happens, I look at my wife and I say, 'We need to enjoy this moment right here! This is really special!'

In spite of her cute little angelic face and pink sneakers, Brianna is actually a baby Tyrannosaurus rex. On STEROIDS!

Millions of people are suffering: they want to be loved but they don't know how to love. And love cannot exist as a monologue; it is a dialogue, a very harmonious dialogue.