I like coming to the United States because the United States played an important role in my life.

You must play for the love of music. Perfect technique is not as important as making music from the heart.

When I started learning the cello, I fell in love with the instrument because it seemed like a voice - my voice.

There is too much emphasis on technical perfection nowadays, and not enough on what music is actually about - irony, joy, human suffering, love.

All my life I wanted to play music with love to every member of the audience.

I would rather have ideas and some difficulties of technique than a perfect technique and no ideas.

Capitalism, communism ... it's all garbage.

Explain to me, please, why in our literature and art so often people absolutely incompetent in this field have the final word.

I never studied, but I had the best teachers.

It is my aim, my destination in life to make the cello as beloved an instrument as the violin and piano.

You know creators, composers, need a palette for life, a color for life.

Rationality is the way to lead life. So high time, let’s stop feeding our dreams and shake hands with the reality.

Men are strong so long as they represent a strong idea they become powerless when they oppose it.

I had never thought of myself as a director and found out that I was not. I am a writer who was able to direct the films that I write.

No theory of the universe can be satisfactory which does not adequately account for the phenomena of life, especially in that richest form which finds expression in human personality.

The man grinned back at me with that perfect sincerity we fear and call simple-minded.

In Hollywood, you grow up quick.

To connect with the great river we all need a path, but when you get down there there's only one river.

Problems are good, as long as you solve them quickly.

We live in a decaying age. Young people no longer respect their parents. They are rude and impatient. They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self control.

I can tell for sure, the technologists have made it clear that they don't care about musicians. The arts have been sacrificed on the altar of technological advancement.