When you play a violin piece, you are a storyteller, and you're telling a story.

I don't want to portray myself as a daredevil. I'm not at all.

The best way to refine an interpretation is by getting out and performing.

I hope I will always have the chance to play the violin.

You only live once, so I try to say yes to everything.

You don't have to have lots of love affairs to know what love is.

Kids need to be structured in some way, but you don't want to force something down their throats that they have no interest in.

There's nothing more frustrating than seeing a conductor say, 'Play softer,' as they're waving their hands in huge gestures.

Conducting is a strange thing to teach.

Actors want to do Shakespeare again and again, or want to do Hamlet. When you hear one guy do Hamlet and another guy do it, it's going to be a whole different experience.

Every orchestra is different. Sometimes, you're blown away by a particular musician. If I'm playing the Brahms concerto, it's crucial to have a great oboe player, because we work in tandem.

Books. People have no idea how beautiful books are. How they taste on your fingers. How bright everything is when you light it with words.

The simple act of sitting here sipping this cappuccino is its own testament to my commitment to living the writer’s life. Which is to say: doing nothing but doing it exceedingly well.

I always have tried to treat people with respect, the way I want to be treated.

If I had learned more about business ahead of time, I would have been shaped into believing that it was only about finances and quality management.

I love being around people who work with their hands, who do the hard things to keep our country going. They're just my kind of people.

It's not good fishing before the net.

I'm very honest - brutally honest. I always look at things from their point of view as well as mine. And I know when to walk away.

I believe that poets have to be inside their poems somewhere, or the poem won't work.

I spent two years living in London - I'd have stayed for ever if I could have got a work visa. It was there I started collecting vinyl and fell in love with the sounds of the 1970s.

Fortunes are made by buying low and selling too soon.