Joshua Bell Quotes

I don't want to portray myself as a daredevil. I'm not at all.

The best way to refine an interpretation is by getting out and performing.

I hope I will always have the chance to play the violin.

When you play a violin piece, you are a storyteller, and you're telling a story.

You only live once, so I try to say yes to everything.

There's nothing more frustrating than seeing a conductor say, 'Play softer,' as they're waving their hands in huge gestures.

Conducting is a strange thing to teach.

Kids need to be structured in some way, but you don't want to force something down their throats that they have no interest in.

You don't have to have lots of love affairs to know what love is.

Actors want to do Shakespeare again and again, or want to do Hamlet. When you hear one guy do Hamlet and another guy do it, it's going to be a whole different experience.

Every orchestra is different. Sometimes, you're blown away by a particular musician. If I'm playing the Brahms concerto, it's crucial to have a great oboe player, because we work in tandem.

Although I hardly ever turn on the TV set unless it's football season, I do watch a lot of TV on my iPad - perfect for long airplane journeys.

I love the outdoor festival feeling.

Being a classical musician, you're doing many things anyway. One day you're doing Bach concerto and the next you're doing some avant-garde thing. It's just another hat that I'm allowed to wear.

I grew up in a musical family, but nobody was a professional musician.

I never had any real expectations about what sort of success I would have or all the publicity.

We live in the least ugly time in history.

I like working with kids because I enjoy seeing the looks on their faces and, it's kind of selfish, I want a future audience.

I want to do everything. That's my problem.

No one tells you what to do if you completely flop at the beginning of a performance.

Over the years, I've collected a lot of musical friends.

When you play for ticket-holders, you are already validated. I have no sense that I need to be accepted. I'm already accepted.

I write arrangements. Im sort of a wannabe composer.

At a music hall, I'll get upset if someone coughs or if someone's cellphone goes off.

So much of performing is a mind game.

I like trying things, I am kind of adventurous and I like thrill seeking.

What drew me to the violin was mastering the instrument technically, which I'm continuing to do.

I was lucky enough to have parents who started me on music very early, but most kids don't get that kind of exposure.

Music plays a huge role in the movie. The music in Star Wars, I can't imagine what the movie would have been like without it. It made the film.

There are some great teachers who have had great students, but they themselves can't play a note. I don't understand it, because the most I learned from my teacher was just hearing him play.

I think music should be the basis of an education, not just something you do once a week.

The symphonies are the things that, as a soloist, I've not gotten to play. I used to travel the world playing concertos, and then I would sit and listen to the symphony.

I want to do everything. That's my problem. Life is short, and I hate the idea of turning down anything. You never know what interesting experience might happen.

My whole life, I've been watching conductors. I was 7 the first time I played with a conductor. Seeing the ones that do it well, it's an amazing thing.

Good conductors know when to let an orchestra lead itself. Ninety percent of what a conductor does comes in the rehearsal - the vision, the structure, the architecture.

My teacher, Josef Gingold, a student of the French school, always loved the music of Saint-Saens and Henri Vieuxtemps and all the French repertoire.