My dad's family were political and he was always a theatrical creature, whereas my mum is really musical and her father was the touring pianist with Nat King Cole. My family was an explosive mixture of politics, religion and music - no wonder I turne...
From early on there were two things that filled my life - music and storytelling, both of them provoked by my father. He was a jazz pianist and also a very good storyteller, an avid reader. He passed both those interests on to me.
Wladyslaw Szpilman: I don't know how to thank you. Captain Wilm Hosenfeld: Thank God, not me. He wants us to survive. Well, that's what we have to believe.
Jurek: [after Dorota meets Wladek] Come on Dorota, you can write him a fan letter later, this isn't the best time. Come on. Wladyslaw Szpilman: Jurek! Where have you been hiding her?
Halina: Have you seen this? Wladyslaw Szpilman: [impatient] What? What? I'm working. What? What is this? Halina: It's where they're going to put us. Wladyslaw Szpilman: What do you mean "put us"?
Mother: [crying] 20 zloty, that's all we have left, 20 zolty. What can I buy with 20 zloty? I am sick of cooking potatoes, potatoes, potatoes.
Father: What do you think? Should I, should I take Uncle Szymon's portrait? Mother: Take it, don't take it, take what you like! [sigh] Mother: Can't you see I'm worried sick?
My mom's a concert pianist, so she started teaching me when I was around seven. When I was eight, I started writing my own songs, and kinda started putting piano and singing together. But I'm trained classically, which is a big influence on me, I thi...
When a pianist sits down and does a virtuoso performance he is in a technical sense transmitting more information to a machine than any other human activity involving machinery allows.
When I was very young, I remember my mother telling me about a friend of hers in Germany, a pianist who played a symphony that wasn't permitted, and the Germans came up on stage and broke every finger on her hands. I grew up with stories of Nazis bre...
My mother was the first woman in the county in Indiana where we were born, in Jay County, to have a college degree. She was educated as a pianist and she wanted to concertize, but when the war came she was married, had a family, so she started teachi...
My family was musical on both sides. My father's family had a famous flautist and a classical pianist. My mother won a contest to be Shirley Temple's double - she was the diva of the family. At 8, I learned how to play guitar. I used to play songs fr...
It still amazes me how many musicians aren't really interested in engaging with their audience at all. Alfred Brendel, a pianist for whom I have the greatest respect, has described performance as a sacred communion between the artist and the composer...
I am the pianist of the duo, although Aleksey does pretty good... you know we've written more and more stuff where he has to play the piano. But you know, to be very honest, I actually went into music because I wanted to be a composer and a conductor...
I grew up in this industry. I'm a third generation actor, and I believe strongly that life and career are two different things. Career is inside my life. I'm also a photographer, a pianist, and lots of different things, so my life consists of so many...
My only wish would be to have 10 more lives to live on this planet. If that were possible, I'd spend one lifetime each in embryology, genetics, physics, astronomy and geology. The other lifetimes would be as a pianist, backwoodsman, tennis player, or...
I took some lessons as a kid but trained myself by ear. I did it the way jazz musicians used to learn years ago, which is to play records and slow them down to figure out the notes. At first I tried to imitate Red Garland, who was my favorite jazz pi...
[Vincent is looking at the 12-fingered pianist] Irene: You didn't know? Vincent: Oh, I knew. Irene: It's amazing, isn't it? Vincent: Twelve fingers or one, it's how you play Irene: That piece can only be played with twelve.
[Szpilman is discovered by the Polish army, wearing the German dress coat given him by Capt. Hosenfeld] Wladyslaw Szpilman: No. Please. I'm Polish. I'm not a German. Polish Soldier: Then why the fucking coat? Wladyslaw Szpilman: I'm cold.
Wailing Woman: Why did I do it? Why did I do it? Why did I do it? Halina: She's getting on my nerves. What did she do, for God's sake? Father: She smothered her baby.
Dorota: I nagged Jurek for weeks and weeks, and at last he gave in and said, "Allright, come with me tomorrow." So I came and... they bombed the station! Wladyslaw Szpilman: Meeting you like that was absolutely wonderful. Dorota: Really? Wladyslaw Sz...
