I'm really funny now.
When I started learning the cello, I fell in love with the instrument because it seemed like a voice - my voice.
You must play for the love of music. Perfect technique is not as important as making music from the heart.
The artist must forget the audience, forget the critics, forget the technique, forget everything but love for the music. Then, the music speaks through the performance, and the performer and the listener will walk together with the soul of the composer, and with God.
There is too much emphasis on technical perfection nowadays, and not enough on what music is actually about - irony, joy, human suffering, love.
All my life I wanted to play music with love to every member of the audience.
The cello is a hero because of its register - its tenor voice. It is a masculine instrument, whereas the violin is feminine because of its soprano pitch. When the cello enters in the Dvorak Concerto, it is like a great orator.
My own saying is: 'Create the hype, but don't ever believe it. '
A Zen master is someone whose life is one with enlightenment and self-discovery. They can never be separated from that. They've been essentially mastered by Zen.
I loved acting, which was never about money, the fame. It was about a search for meaning. It was painful.
No other formula gives your baby a better start in life except that stuff that comes out of you for free.