Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart..

I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance.

In music, in the sea, in a flower, in a leaf, in an act of kindness... I see what people call God in all these things.

I used to think that eighty was a very old age. Now I am ninety. I do not think this any more. As long as you are able to admire and to love, you are young.

What do we teach our children? . . . We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique . . . You may become a Shakespeare a Michelangelo a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything.

Let us not forget that the greatest composers were also the greatest thieves. They stole from everyone and everywhere.

Throughout my career nervousness and stage-fright have never left me before playing. And each of the thousands of concerts I have played at I feel as bad as I did the very first time.