When you play for ticket-holders, you are already validated. I have no sense that I need to be accepted. I'm already accepted.

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.

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

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.

Behind every successful fortune there is a crime.

The phenomenon of UFO doesn't say anything about the presence of intelligence in space. It just shows how rare it is here on the earth.

[9/11] was not meant to be argued with. It wasn't part of any negotiation. No message was intended with it. It spoke for itself, which is unusual.

We create our fate everyday

I like to play women who blaze trails.

To honor the people that died, we need to stop the Iran agreement, for sure, because the Iranian mullahs have their blood on their hands, and we need to take out ISIS with every tool at our disposal.

I would rather do movies because I'm very lazy and the hours are much easier.

Not all activities are equal... Those that involve genuine concentration - studying a musical instrument, playing board games, reading, and dancing - are associated with a lower risk for dementia.

John Brown first swam into my vision in the 1960s when I was a political activist in the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement at Chapel Hill, where I went to university.

Performing music is a way to do comedy, but without the obligation to do a solid hour, hour and half of a standup. I could intersperse it with music, so it became a really good format for me.