Can you appreciate music without playing it? Yes, you can. You can appreciate baseball without playing it. Many people attend a football game merely for the crowd, the excitement, the color.

I have discovered three things which know no geographical borders - classical music, American jazz, and applause as the sign of the public's favor.

Criticism does not disturb me, for I am my own severest critic. Always in my playing I strive to surpass myself, and it is this constant struggle that makes mu…

There is no top. There are always further heights to reach.

I live in the USSR, work actively and count naturally on the worker and peasant spectator. If I am not comprehensible to them I should be deported.

His formidable originality within the picture-book convention may not have been altogether apparent to Keeping himself, which is both a strength and a weakness…

I can't really hear the audience applause when I'm on stage. I'm totally immersed in the piece. But sometimes I get a lot of it and wonder, 'Now, why did they …