I pay my tributes to my dearest friend and the greatest musician of India Ravi Shanker. It has been a long time since we made music together. I will never forget the last time we worked together.

My temples are only in India. When I am in India, I go to the religious ceremonies.

In Bombay, we have a fine concert hall. I think it is high time we built venues in Delhi and Calcutta, not only for western music, but also Indian music. It doesn't matter which party is in power; don't you think the capital of India should have a concert hall?

I'm a Persian Jew, and we don't speak Hebrew.

The New York Philharmonic is a tremendous opportunity, a great orchestra.

There was an opinion expressed in the newspapers that, after 20 years, maybe the Israel Philharmonic should consider asking me to leave. I thought they might have a point, so I asked my orchestra. They told me overwhelmingly that they wanted me to stay.