The awful thing about a conductor becoming geriatric is that you seem to become more desirable, not less.

Music is a continuum and the modern and avant-garde composers of today will be part of the standard repertoire 30 years from now.

Mozart has written opera, symphony, sacred and chamber music - not to mention his piano and violin concerti.

I just wish, maybe, that I'd started conducting earlier. I was about 40 when I started. Apart from that I don't really have any regrets. Is that bad?

I would like new people with new ideas to come into it and change it.

If the (British) Arts Council give you money, they also tell you how to spend it.

Most Beethoven symphonies require 80 or more instruments, and the late romantics even more.

So I've never found there was any particular separation between the two cultures at all, musically speaking.

There are some sounds that English singers find quite difficult to manipulate.

We don't want other people poking into our artistic pie.

Initially we performed in halls with capacities of 1,000.

Equality is humanity.

I went to Moorehouse College. There was no track and field there.

It's one thing to fight for what you believe in, another thing to fight for what others believe in.

We not only respect babies, we demonstrate our respect every time we interact with them. Respecting a child means treating even the youngest infant as a unique human being, not as an object

Satyagraha is search for Truth, and God is Truth.

I have learned to pare down what I do and still be effective and strong in a role.

I typically have a martini.

It's safe to assume that no matter where you stand, someone would be happy to be in your shoes, just as you'd be happy to be in someone else's.

There is nothing to fear other than my mind.

And if you have five seconds to spare, I'll tell you the story of my life".