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.

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.

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.

Just make it (his obituary): born in Russia, first lesson at 3, debut at 7, debut in America in 1917.

Every day is a little life ... live every day as if it would be the last. Those that dare lose a day are dangerously prodigal those that dare misspend it are desperate.

My buildings should have an emotional core - a space which, in itself, has an emotional nice feeling.

The new season will be all about scoring more goals than the opposition.

Hippodamus, son of Euryphon, a native of Miletus, invented the art of planning and laid out the street plan of Piraeus.

There's a difference between violence and senseless violence.

He who dallies is a dastard, He who doubts is damned.

When you have the intuition that there is something which is there, but out of the reach of your physical world, art and religion are the only means to get to it.

A dog, I have always said, is prose; a cat is a poem.

Meditation is not a withdrawal from life. Meditation is a process of understanding oneself.

The limitless opportunity of being able to do anything is daunting, but it's also the most rewarding. I'm having the time of my life.