I use my hands like a sculptor, to mold and shape the sound I want, to clarify.

How could a New Yorker possibly take something called the Hollywood String Quartet seriously?

The role of an orchestra in the 21st century isn't just playing, it's about developing future audiences and performers.

We need music to restore the human spirit

The convergence of the Rhone and Saone. Paul Bocuse. The birthplace of cinema. Chateauneuf-du-Pape just a few miles down the road. It does not get much better than Lyon.

An orchestra knows during the first two minutes of the first rehearsal whether or not they are going to enjoy the person on the podium.

There is no 'perfect' in music. If I ever came off the stage and felt it could not be better, it would then be time to quit.

We are a global society, and one does not have to be from Germany to give a great performance of Beethoven.

I don't really think about retiring. I will retire just before people start saying, 'I knew Leonard Slatkin when he conducted well.

Over the years it has been my privilege to lead performances with Saint Louis, the National Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra and so many other wonderful organizations.

I'm beginning to see that just knowing the piece is not enough. Having a clear technique is not enough. Having a broad repertory is not enough. I want desperately to get past all those things.

Life is as sad as a glass of grenadine.' ... It’s almost that. It is sad. But, at the same time, how a glass of grenadine sparkles!

It is a great mystery that though the human heart longs for Truth, in which alone it finds liberation and delight, the first reaction of human beings to Truth is one of hostility and fear!

You always get exaggerated notions of things you don't know anything about.

How you speak about others speaks loudest about yourself.

There is no more "front" and "rear" where Fobbit-types would go to hide out in safer locations. In Iraq and Afghanistan, you engaged in a theater of operations that's 360 degrees at all times.

I just dress up what the Good Lord provides.

I don't believe in Hell, but I believe in my parents' couch.

I'd kiss you, but you smell like a gym bag.

I like to try anything... You have to do the experiments to find out what the formulas are.

Life in itself is short enough, but the physicians with their art, know to their amusement, how to make it still shorter.