One of the most important elements in teaching, conducting, and performing, all three, is listening.
"We shouldn't wait to be happy until we reach some future point, only to discover that happiness was already available--all the time!
Often the deep valleys of our present will be understood only by looking back on them from the mountains of our future experience.
The practice of giving an A transports your relationships from the world of measurement into the universe of possibility... This A is not an expectation to live up to, but a possibility to live into.
Beethoven, Schubert, Schoenberg, Berg imply a type of pianist who is intellectual. That's not always associated with female soloists.
I can't even touch another conductor's baton. The center of gravity, the feel of the handle, puts me totally off.
On the grounds of prestigious musical organizations that come and go, New York has the edge.
Beethoven tells you what it's like to be Beethoven and Mozart tells you what it's like to be human. Bach tells you what it's like to be the universe.
I've learned a lot from being a chameleon, sort of adopting the musical personalities of who I was playing with.
It is provided by the Constitution that the President shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the Union and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.
You can see these boxes which are covered with metal foils for thermal reasons, and they are also, most of the time, thermally controlled inside to keep reasonable temperature inside each of these containers.
When you are accompanying someone, you are listening to them the way you listen to a Bach Chorale, where four parts are going on at the same time, all of which are gorgeous melodies, all being played simultaneously.
Half the issues they - are so polished they're talking about - are dead by the time they get into the office, and into the midst of their tour where they're really productive.
I was playing violin for a long time, about 6 years. It takes a while. You need very patient people in your house when you have a violin.
You look at it as a privilege. So you really decide that you're going to put the time in and work really hard to get to the point where you're ready.
If you want to go into space first time on a new vehicle that's never been flown, you want to go with a pro.
I don't stretch enough. I know I should do it more, and I'd like to do yoga, but I just don't have time.
As soon as, say, Saddam Hussein started bombing Israel with Scuds, everyone was like, 'Poor Israel.' But when Israel retaliates - and most of the time they then win - people turn against them.
I sometimes feel it is to my disadvantage that I have not conducted the Cleveland Orchestra or the Boston or Chicago symphonies, but then I have had to sacrifice something in order to have enough time with my orchestras.
Afghanistan is going to be here a long time, and what's critical is that Afghanistan's relationship with its neighbors are, to the maximum extent they can be, constructive and operationally useful.
There is a direct line relationship between what happened in Afghanistan in the work up to 11 September 2001 and what we're doing in Afghanistan today.