Music making is the most joyful activity possible, the most perfect expression of any emotion.

People think I'm disciplined. It is not discipline. It is devotion. There is a great difference.

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.

I think a life in music is a life beautifully spent, and this is what I have devoted my life to.

The rivalry is with ourself. I try to be better than is possible. I fight against myself, not against the other.

If children are not introduced to music at an early age, I believe something fundamental is actually being taken from them.

Some singers want the audience to love them. I love the audience.

Learning music by reading about it is like making love by mail.

You don't need any brains to listen to music.

As an art form, opera is a rare and remarkable creation. For me, it expresses aspects of the human drama that cannot be expressed in any other way, or certainly not as beautifully.

Am I afraid of high notes? Of course I am afraid. What sane man is not?

You can't prepare for the things that change your life. They come suddenly and unannounced.

It's been very hard for the guitar as a serious synthesizer to compete with keyboards.

I was in a sushi bar and it dawned on me - how could I discriminate between a cow and a fish?

two powerful, opposing forces - one seducing people to eat and the other telling them they are failures if they do - create heartache everywhere.

Darwin wasn't just provocative in saying that we descend from the apes - he didn't go far enough. We are apes in every way, from our long arms and tailless bodies to our habits and temperament.

The ones who look the most suspicious are likely innocent. It's the ones who look innocent I need to beware.

To be himself, one neeeds to be free from the pressure of evaluative praise

They say you waste time asleep, but I'm just trying to dream.

I don't think any word can explain a man's life.

Every person who gets rich by creation opens a way for thousands to follow-and inspires them to do so.