The big difference between human happiness and sadness? Thirty-seven freakin' vibrations.

Being a conductor is kind of a hybrid profession because most fundamentally, it is being someone who is a coach, a trainer, an editor, a director.

If you're curious, if you have a capacity for wonder, if you're alive, you know all that you need to know [about music].

Classical music is an unbroken, living tradition that goes back over 1,000 years, and every one of those years has had something unique and powerful to say to us about what it's like to be alive.

You can't have Bach, Mozart and Beethoven as your favorite composers. They simply define what music is!

Classical music is a wonderful 1200 year-old tradition that witnesses everything that it has meant and what it means right now to be human.

The whole path of American music has been so much about the recognition of stylistic diversity, and the recognition of the importance of music which was from one of the vernacular traditions.

I think music needs to be presented in a way so that kids can grasp songs, dances, simple music that's associated with some particular defining moment in human experience.

When I first was conducting as guest conductor in Europe 25 years ago, I would propose doing American pieces and grudgingly it would be accepted from time to time.

Extreme volume in music very often disguises a lack of actually important content.

One of my central maxims is how a major part of what a conductor tries to do is get a large group of people to agree on where "now" actually is.

War is like a fire. One man may start it, but it will spread all over. It is not about one thing in particular.

When you hate someone it means you like it.

For it is a true fact that faeries, just like people, very often find that a full belly and a good friend are all that they need to be happy.

Be your own person because no one can take that away from you.

There is a place in the net where the keeper cannot reach the ball. The problem is the pressure you feel in a penalty shootout.

People do horrible things when they're young. There might be betrayal and there might be things that should be forgotten.

If you're into metal, then you should like hair metal!

I know well that when Christ is nearest, Satan also is busiest.

Film is just a mirror of the society we live in.

I have some intellectual-type pursuits, like studying philosophy and stuff like that.