What I never overcame is a kind of shyness.

Even my family laughed at me because they thought this young guy who's always stuttering in front of other people should be in front of 100 musicians and talk to them and leading them.

An orchestra full of stars can be a disaster.

If every school would hire two more music teachers, we would need two fewer police officers.

Young conductors who are confident enough, they very often have success.

Sometimes if you have very confident people, you have to tell them please, be polite, there are other players are good enough as you and you should never speak out of an orchestra.

I always imagined that to bring an orchestra to play together is not enough for a conductor.

And if you are strong enough, then you can grow as a conductor more and more.

I was different from most young conductors today.

And at the same time, I had my very first concert at the age of 16. I hadn't heard a symphony orchestra before, and I was so deeply impressed I said I have to be a conductor.

At the age of 16, something happened with my finger and the doctor told me, you never can be a organist or pianist, so think about what you do with music.

The fact that hardly anyone is ever prepared to admit to racist behaviour is perhaps a sort of strength: it speaks to the fact that racism is socially inadmissible.

The secret to success is good leadership, and good leadership is all about making the lives of your team members or workers better.

I have lived to know that the secret of happiness is never to allow your energies to stagnate.

You really have to be a character to serve it properly. Obviously, you're acting, but you have to have those things in yourself, whether it's the experience or the same qualities.

Once I was standing in line to buy a telephone and Senator Wirth was in line with me. The next day the New York Times reported that we'd both purchased telephones and what price we'd paid!

Rhetoric takes no real account of the art in literature and morality takes no account of the art in life.

Readers transform a library from a mausoleum into many theaters.

Comedians don't have a monopoly on suffering. But creative people are sometimes fortunate enough to be able to incorporate their most traumatic experiences into their art.

Now you know where I got my name.

The printing press is the greatest weapon in the armoury of the modern commander.