I Don't Always Have A Five-year Plan.

The Tradition Of Classical Music And The Opera Is Such That It Used To Be The Place Where Social Intercourse Could Take Place Between All Parts Of Society: Politicians, Industrialists, Artists, Citizens, Etc. That Tradition, I Think, Still Exists, But It's Much, Much More Diluted.

I Learn Something Not Because I Have To, But Because I Really Want To. That's The Same View I Have For Performing. I'm Performing Because I Really Want To, Not Because I Have To Bring Bread Back Home.

What Came Up At Age 49 Is I Realized That Of All The Things I'm Interested In, The Thing I'm Most Interested In Is Figuring Out What Makes People Tick, Why People Think The Way They Do, Why They Act The Way They Do. And I Realized That Music Is Such A Great Way To Investigate Why People Do What They Do.

My Involvement In The Political Arena Is To Make Sure There's A Place For Culture.

Many Of The Central Asians Know Russian, And Ted Levin Speaks It Fluently. I Speak Chinese, But Mongolian Is Completely Different, So We Had To Have Translators.