[perfectionism leads to] a tendency to apologize preemptively for one's efforts, knowing from experience that there's sure to be something wrong with them.

Robotic correctness is the last thing judges want to see or hear

. .the most crucial ingredient by far for success in music is . . .what happens in the practice room.

If we're not actively making things better, chances are we're making them worse.

Music, the most abstract and uncanny art, is an eternal river of sound moving through time. We can free ourselves from whatever may be holding us back, and join that flowing river.

Mistakes are . . . immensely useful. . . they show us . . . where we are right now and what we need to do next

Music study presents a natural, here-and-now route to selfknowledge and self-integration.

Learning itself is a fulfilling adventure at all points in the process. In fact, psychologists have listed learning as one of the basic, universal joys of human experience.

If you have played "six times wrong, one time right" the problem is not quite corrected.

Don't attribute mishaps to a lapse in concentration - if you missed the note you don't know it.

Much music teaching seems more concerned with controlling the student than with encouraging the student's own impulses.

And I figured that he can be my ears and I can be his eyes. A good trade-off, don't you think?

New York - that unnatural city where every one is an exile, none more so than the American

Part of what's changed in politics is social media and how people are receiving information.

That's how we like to play basketball, is be physical down there in the paint and force teams to the perimeter.

American youth is looking for a reason to die.

People like to say don't abort, adopt. But I'm saying don't strip, scholarship.

Given time, given the number of prisoners now that we're interrogating, I'm confident that we're going to find weapons of mass destruction.

The more that we choose not to talk about domestic violence, the more we shy away from the issue, the more we lose.

As our society gets more complex and our people get more complacent, the role of the jester is more vital than ever before. Please stop sitting around. We need you to make a ruckus.

Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere.