Can you appreciate music without playing it? Yes, you can. You can appreciate baseball without playing it. Many people attend a football game merely for the crowd, the excitement, the color.

Practice like it means everything in the world to you. Perform like you don't give a damn.

No matter what side of the argument you are on, you always find people on your side that you wish were on the other.

If I don't practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it.

There is no top. There are always further heights to reach.

There is no such thing as perfection, there are only standards. And after you have set a standard you learn that it was not high enough. You want to surpass it.

I occasionally play works by contemporary composers and for two reasons. First to discourage the composer from writing any more and secondly to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven.

Criticism does not disturb me, for I am my own severest critic. Always in my playing I strive to surpass myself, and it is this constant struggle that makes music fascinating to me.

The discipline of practice every day is essential. When I skip a day, I notice a difference in my playing. After two days, the critics notice, and after three days, so does the audience.

Music has a lot in com­mon with math­e­mat­ics. But in music, two and two need not make four: they add up to what­ever you wish.

If the Almighty himself played the violin, the credits would still read 'Rubinstein, God, and Piatigorsky', in that order.

Life is Not a perpetual climb towards Greatness.For our family, ourselves, and friends, It is but sad Decay, so, Let every girl die after her Hebé (Ἥβη).And every man after his Aristeia(ἀριστεία).

The pleasure of being a scoundrel can be adequately savored in silence.

Man was not meant for safe harbor.

She [Marilyn Monroe] was good at being inarticulately abstracted for the same reason that midgets are good at being short.

People don't get it; they think I'm rich. I'm not! I have no money.

To get rid of greed, you should try to do some sort of a collective social work.

I did jazz dance for a few years.

I am an American Jew and aware of the sensitivities involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Sometimes pain is for the greater good.

Polite and velvety leaders, who take care to avoid bruising others, are generally not as effective at forcing change.