Most Beethoven symphonies require 80 or more instruments, and the late romantics even more.

Music is a continuum and the modern and avant-garde composers of today will be part of the standard repertoire 30 years from now.

Mozart has written opera, symphony, sacred and chamber music - not to mention his piano and violin concerti.

I just wish, maybe, that I'd started conducting earlier. I was about 40 when I started. Apart from that I don't really have any regrets. Is that bad?

The awful thing about a conductor becoming geriatric is that you seem to become more desirable, not less.

I would like new people with new ideas to come into it and change it.

If the (British) Arts Council give you money, they also tell you how to spend it.

So I've never found there was any particular separation between the two cultures at all, musically speaking.

There are some sounds that English singers find quite difficult to manipulate.

We don't want other people poking into our artistic pie.

Initially we performed in halls with capacities of 1,000.

There are just some kind of men who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.

Every brain is different. And so must be every course of therapy.

For is there any practice less selfish, any labor less alienated, any time less wasted, than preparing something delicious and nourishing for people you love?

As no one knew much about my mental illness, a lot of people had the attitude that I had the capability to 'kick it' and get better instantly. This was the most frustrating attitude for me.

All my life I have dealt with objective matters; hence I lack both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people and to carry out official functions.

Leadership is action, not position

What's old collapses, times change, And new life blossoms in the ruins.

Its not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it.

You can't just change who you are on the outside and expect it to change who you are on the inside.

I played pretend games as a kid, army, whatever, but I never wanted to be an actor.