If you want me to play only the notes without any specific dynamics, I will never make one mistake.

Behind the notes, something different is told, and that's what the interpreter must find out. He may sit down and play one passage one way and then perhaps exaggerate the next, but, in any event, he must do something with the music. The worst thing is not to do anything.

I may play the same program from one recital to the next, but I will play it differently, and because it is always different, it is always new.

Without false modesty, I feel that, when I'm on the stage, I'm the king, the boss of the situation.

For me, the intellect is always the guide but not the goal of the performance. Three things have to be coordinated, and not one must stick out. Not too much intellect because it can become scholastic. Not too much heart because it can become schmaltz. Not too much technique because you become a mechanic.

If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together.