You're playing serious music, and you want to be taken seriously. When they get my age wrong on the program, I wish they'd make me older.

I guess really what my goal is is just to enlarge the violin repertoire.

If I can add, say, 10 great new violin concertos to the repertoire before I'm done, that will be truly exciting.

I think humor is important for all of us, and a great comedian is a great treasure.

When the music is physically demanding, I want to make sure that the effort involved is put across to the audience through physical gesture.

People, of all ages, are far more open than you might think to being moved in new ways.

My goal would be trying to bring some light to the world, which is often a dark and violent place.

It's nice not to have the majority of the attention on me like there is when playing a concerto with an orchestra.

Classical music has been based on works people love and come back to for aural comfort.

I suppose that's why new music and I go well together, because new music often requires maintaining great rhythm.

Generations of gun owners have taught their sons and daughters that it takes as much patience and skill to be a good shot as it does to be a good steward of a powerful weapon.

I'll take my iPod - though I'm not very good with gadgets to be honest - and that has everything I like.

Our ideal of the future is that she should continue to render that service of her own free will.

To charm, to strengthen, and to teach: these are the three great chords of might.

I did my dissertation on Kafka.

Don't focus on the good old days, look forward towards the good new days.

Better a pink bottom than a black soul.

Most writers, I'm afraid, live very boring lives sitting in front of a screen. However, having said that: every writer puts a bit of themselves into the characters to bring them alive.

Harmony between two individuals is never granted-it has to be conquered indefinitely.

The only guaranteed way to make something not very funny is to make it vague.