Don't play the notes. Play the meaning of the notes.

To retire is to die.

I don't have hobbies. I have passions.

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

The truly important things in life -- love, beauty, and one's own uniqueness -- are constantly being overlooked.

I am a very simple man. I am a man first, an artist second. My first obligation is to the welfare of my fellow man. I will endeavour to meet this obligation through music, since it transcends language, politics and national boundaries.

The art of interpretation is not to play what is written.

Each second that we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that never was before and never will be again.

Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe; a moment that never was before and never will be again.

Beauty is all about us, but how many are blind! They look at the wonder of this earth and seem to see nothing. People move hectically but give little thought to where they are going. They seek excitement ... as if they were lost and desperate.

Man has made many machines, complex and cunning, but which of them indeed rivals the workings of his heart?

The Cello is like a beautiful woman who has not grown older, but younger with time, more slender , more supple , more graceful.

The cello is like a beautiful woman who has not grown older, but younger with time, more slender, more supple, more graceful.

The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border? There is a brotherhood among all men. This must be recognized if life is to remain. We must learn the love of man.

The art of not playing in tempo -- one has to learn it. And the art of not playing what is written on the printed paper.

It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it.

We must all work to make the world worthy of its children.

For the past eighty years I have started each day in the same manner... I go to the piano, and I play preludes and fugues of Bach... It is a sort of benediction on the house.

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

Of course, I continue to play and to practice. I think I would do so if I lived for another hundred years.