As Long As One Can

For The Past Eighty Years I Have Started Each Day In The Same Manner. It Is Not A Mechanical Routine, But Something Essential To My Daily Life. I Go To The Piano, And Play Two Preludes And Fugues Of Bach. I Cannot Think Of Doing Otherwise. It Is A Sort Of Benediction On The House. But That Is Not Its Only Meaning For Me. It Is A Rediscovery Of The World Of Which I Have The Joy Of Being A Part. It Fills Me With Awareness Of The Wonder Of Life, With A Feeling Of The Incredible Marvel Of Being A Human Being.

The Most Important Thing In Music Is What Is Not In The Notes.

To Retire Is To Begin To Die.

For Twelve Years I Studied And Worked At Them Every Day, And I Was Nearly 25 Before I Had The Courage To Play One Of Them In Public. Before I Did, No Violinist Or Cellist Had Ever Played A Suite In Its Entirety.

The Cello Is Like A Beautiful Woman Who Has Not Grown Older, But Younger With Time, More Slender, More Supple, More Graceful.