Nothing is better than music; when it takes us out of time, it has done more for us than we have the right to hope for.

To study music, we must learn the rules. To create music, we must break them.

The essential conditions of everything you do must be choice, love, passion.

Life is denied by lack of attention, whether it be to cleaning windows or trying to write a masterpiece.

It is nothing to succeed if one has not taken great trouble, and it is nothing to fail if one has done the best one could.

Loving a child doesn't mean giving in to all his whims; to love him is to bring out the best in him, to teach him to love what is difficult.

The art of music is so deep and profound that to approach it very seriously only is not enough. One must approach music with a serious rigor and, at the same time, with a great, affectionate joy.

Do not take up music unless you would rather die than not do so.

Do nothing for effect. Do it for truth.

Without discipline, there can be no freedom.

False notes can be forgiven, false music cannot.

If life is nothing more than a journey to death, autumn makes sense but spring does not.

The best or nothing at all.

Friendship is also about liking a person for their failings, their weakness. It's also about mutual help, not about exploitation.

I don't watch the show - only bits and pieces of all of them. The only one I sat through was the pilot.

Women have a greater verbal capacity.

Art upsets, science reasures.

It's never too late to get good at something.

These so-called extremists in Pakistan should be brought into the mainstream; if you marginalize them, you radicalize them.

I like character-driven stuff. It doesn't matter, the size of the part.

We can be serene even in the midst of calamities and, by our serenity, make others more tranquil.