I've come to the conclusion that a long personal relationship is next to impossible for me. Ultimately, music is a possessive mistress.

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

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

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 don't know anything anymore. Is that normal? Is it normal to notice the enormity of everything and just go blank?

Where thou art that is Home.

Every sin is a mistake, as well as a wrong; and the epitaph for the sinner is, "Thou fool!"

The success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervenor.

Nothing is ever in such short supply at a race track as time. It doesn't seem to matter whether we are at the track for a race meeting or for testing - there is never enough time.

I've always been clever enough to surround myself with the best in whatever field I'm working in... Good people make you look good.

I have never really lived with anyone in my adult years. I just read my sports ticker. And 50 Shades of Grey.

It’s not in the book or in the writer that readers discern the truth of what they read; they see it in themselves, if the light of truth has penetrated their minds.