I never studied, but I had the best teachers.

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

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.

The bond of brotherhood is we are sisters and brothers in love.

[T]hese leaders must not believe they are actually being watched, for their behavior in no way reflects the possible existence of a set of values or ethical laws that supersedes their own dominion.

Our mind has evolved in such a way that new wants keep appearing in it relentlessly. But do not confuse them with needs. Needs are necessity, but wants are luxury.

life is not so long that one can grow tired of it

One should not be too difficult. An artist should not treat himself like an enemy.

And all the air is filled with pleasant noise of waters

Before people deal with their own sin, they are always dealing with other people's sin.

Create the kind of world you want to live in by how you treat others now.

There comes a time in the seeker's life when he discovers that he is at once the lover and the beloved.

The product of a true, growing, gospel-centered nature is often gentleness.