Everybody makes his path differently.

Applause should be an emotional response to the music, rather than a regulated social duty.

Mozart often wrote to his family that certain variations or sections of pieces were so successful that they had to be encored immediately, even without waiting for the entire piece to end.

We should welcome applause whenever it comes.

I have been coming to Los Angeles since 1975 to perform.

When one plays a Steinway, there is a warmth and nobility in the sound that is unequalled by any other instrument.

I have always thought that my ear is also very influenced by my eyes.

Pianists don't argue too much generally because we have a hard enough time just getting things right. Arguing is for string players.

We seem to have set up some very arcane rules as to when it is actually OK to applaud.

Sometimes I wish that applause would come just a bit later, when it is so beautifully hushed that I feel like holding my breath in the silence of the end.

All of us love applause, and so we should - it means that the listener likes us!

Why did it have to be so hard? Why couldn't there be a happily-ever-after ride-into-the-sunset feeling all the time?

Silence is golden but too long a silence an imitation junk

I need to be able to face things.

I declare myself an Austrian and a European. A united Europe will be a peaceful Europe.

Look at my big teeth. I'm an apex predator. My genetic material is awesome

When you're trying to free yourself from a religion that has been ingrained in you since childhood, it's more like ripping out your veins and tendons.

Music was born of love. Had there never been any human affection, there never could have been uttered a strain of music.

I think there's a prototype we're all looking for, whether it's Brett Favre or Troy Aikman. And everyone's got that picture in their mind of the prototype at the position.

This is what holidays, travels, vacations are about. It is not really rest or even leisure we chase. We strain to renew our capacity for wonder to shock ourselves into astonishment once again.

All of my walls are covered with framed pictures of my friends.