Good conductors know when to let an orchestra lead itself. Ninety percent of what a conductor does comes in the rehearsal - the vision, the structure, the architecture.

I don't want to portray myself as a daredevil. I'm not at all.

The best way to refine an interpretation is by getting out and performing.

I hope I will always have the chance to play the violin.

When you play a violin piece, you are a storyteller, and you're telling a story.

You only live once, so I try to say yes to everything.

You don't have to have lots of love affairs to know what love is.

Kids need to be structured in some way, but you don't want to force something down their throats that they have no interest in.

There's nothing more frustrating than seeing a conductor say, 'Play softer,' as they're waving their hands in huge gestures.

Conducting is a strange thing to teach.

Actors want to do Shakespeare again and again, or want to do Hamlet. When you hear one guy do Hamlet and another guy do it, it's going to be a whole different experience.

Your life - and all lives - will be richer if lived with a open, loving heart rather than a closed, fearful mind

Pain and suffering that are not transformed are usually projected onto others.

I think the motive force of all our action is, after all, personal happiness.

When stupidity knocks at the door, it is stupidity that opens it.

I dress for the image. Not for myself, not for the public, not for fashion, not for men.

The only really good place to buy lumber is at a store where the lumber has already been cut and attached together in the form of furniture finished and put inside boxes.

An unclean person is universally a slothful one.

Old radio comedy makes me laugh, as well as 'I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue' and comedians like Paul Merton.

I had to sit in front of all these people, and act like I knew what I was doing. I faked my way through it pretty well.