To Retire Is The Beginning Of Death.

To Be A Musician Is A Great Privilege But It Is Also A Very Great Responsibility. One Must Think That To Be A Musician Is A Gift - A Gift From Nature. There Is No Great Merit In Us Except In Loving This Gift With Respect And Devotion And Doing Everything Possible To Honor That Gift By Work And More Work. We Must Work With Conviction And Humility, Searching For Beauty, Simplicity, And The Truth. And It Is For Us Musicians To Do All In Our Power For A Better World. Music Must Carry The Message Of Beauty, Of Love And Of Peace.

The Most Perfect Technique Is That Which Is Not Noticed At All.

There Is No Substitute For Work; What Seems Ease Of Performance Comes From The Greatest Labor.

For Twelve Years I Studied And Worked At Them Every Day, And I Was Nearly 25 Before I Had The Courage To Play One Of Them In Public. Before I Did, No Violinist Or Cellist Had Ever Played A Suite In Its Entirety.

For The Past Eighty Years I Have Started Each Day In The Same Manner. It Is Not A Mechanical Routine, But Something Essential To My Daily Life. I Go To The Piano, And Play Two Preludes And Fugues Of Bach. I Cannot Think Of Doing Otherwise. It Is A Sort Of Benediction On The House. But That Is Not Its Only Meaning For Me. It Is A Rediscovery Of The World Of Which I Have The Joy Of Being A Part. It Fills Me With Awareness Of The Wonder Of Life, With A Feeling Of The Incredible Marvel Of Being A Human Being.