When recordings replaced concerts as the dominant mode of hearing music, our conception of the nature of performance and of music itself was altered.

The death of classical music is perhaps its oldest continuing tradition.

Beethoven in c minor has come to symbolize his artistic character...where he seems to be most impatient of any compromise.

Stage fright, like epilepsy, is a divine ailment, a sacred madness... It is a grace that is sufficient in the old Jesuit sense - that is, insufficient by itself but a necessary condition for success.

Even Stravinsky does not evoke the same public affection as Verdi.

Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.

Why go with wrong, when right is an option?

If a guy hasn't got any gamble in him- he isn't worth a crap.

You can make initial contact with someone who does not speak your language with signs or smiles, but to communicate you need words. So it is with a nation; to understand it you have to read its books

Crackers!” said Dumbledore enthusiastically, offering the end of a large silver noisemaker to Snape, who took it reluctantly.

True and false fears let us refrain, Let us love nobly, and live, and add again Years and years unto years, till we attain To write threescore ; this is the second of our reign.

Love and art do not embrace what is beautiful but what is made beautiful by this embrace.

Fame is as much about luck as it is about talent, perhaps more.

To understand is to experience harmony between what we aim at and what is given, between the intention and the performance - and the body is our anchorage in the world.

I will trust and not be afraid.