"The mental imagery involved with pianistic tactilia is not related to the striking of individual keys but rather to the rites of passage between notes."
-Glenn Gould
"I am not a complete idiot, but whether from weakness or laziness have no talent for thinking. I know only how to reflect: I am a mirror. Logic does not exist for me. I float on the waves of art and life and never really know how to distinguish what belongs to the one or the other or what is common to both. Life unfolds for me like a theatre presenting a sequence of somewhat unreal sentiments; while the things of art are real to me and go straight to my heart."
-Sviatoslav Richter
"Put a small piano in a truck and drive out on country roads; take time to discover new scenery; stop in a pretty place where there is a good church; upload the piano and tell the residents; give a concert; offer flowers to the people who have been so kind as to attend; leave again."
-Sviatoslav Richter
Never look at the trombones, it only encourages them.
-Richard Wagner
I think it's beautiful to practice. I love to practice.
- Claudio Arrau
"What you have in your head, put down on paper. The head is a fragile vessel."
-Dmitri Shostakovich
"Listen to no one's advice except that of the wind in the trees. That can recount the whole history of mankind."
- Claude Debussy
"Piano playing consists of common sense, heart and technical resources. All three should be equally developed. Without common sense you are a fiasco, without technique an amateur, without heart a machine. The profession does have its hazards."
-Vladimir Horowitz
"If they cut off both hands, I will compose music anyway holding the pen in my teeth."
-Dmitri Shostakovich
"There are still so many beautiful things to be said in C major."
-Sergei Prokofiev
Some thoughts from curly-haired musician