Capitalism, communism ... it's all garbage.

You must play for the love of music. Perfect technique is not as important as making music from the heart.

When I started learning the cello, I fell in love with the instrument because it seemed like a voice - my voice.

There is too much emphasis on technical perfection nowadays, and not enough on what music is actually about - irony, joy, human suffering, love.

All my life I wanted to play music with love to every member of the audience.

I would rather have ideas and some difficulties of technique than a perfect technique and no ideas.

Explain to me, please, why in our literature and art so often people absolutely incompetent in this field have the final word.

I like coming to the United States because the United States played an important role in my life.

I never studied, but I had the best teachers.

It is my aim, my destination in life to make the cello as beloved an instrument as the violin and piano.

You know creators, composers, need a palette for life, a color for life.

I begin to be impatient of solitude - to feel its draperies hang sweltering, unwholesome about me.

Summer movie idea: take all the sequels that are out right now, and make movies about their backstories.

Kindness is a universal language regardless of age, nationality or religion.

I'm a character actor but unlike a lot of character actors, I don't look radically different from film to film and there was a bunch of them at once.

The 50 greatest players don't matter when you're in the Hall of Fame. We all know that I was not one of the 50 greatest, I was one of the 25 greatest - in my mind.

The relationship between the prophet and the President, the priest and the President, is a sacred one.

There are so many people that don't believe in themselves and don't have faith.

We never understand what we're praying, and God, in His mercy, does not answer our prayers according to our understanding, but according to His wisdom.

Pride builds walls between people, humility builds bridges.

Why is Form beautiful? Because, I think, it helps us confront our worst fear: the suspicion that life may be chaos and that therefore our suffering is without meaning.