Something new has the chance to speak to someone immediately. There isn't this expectation of what they're about to hear, so people can be really captivated, really quickly.

Always ask questions.

I think the things that I learned that stick with me are things you often repeat, even today, which is never stop learning.

When we talk about music, we tend to place our experiences into one of two categories: making the music and listening to it. Delineating the two seems practical and obvious. In reality, though, there are a lot of opportunities for overlap, and it doesn't matter how you get into the music as long as you connect with it.

Sometimes if the point of a piece of music is to open a conversation with other people, it's really hard to open that conversation if you're telling people exactly what to do or feel or think.

Phrasing is the idea of finding sentences and using punctuation in speech. I often look at the score to see what's written in by the composer to see if I can find clues to those directions, like what direction did the composer have in mind, and I try to incorporate those things as much as possible.

Obviously, something like ballet, you have music, you dance with the music and it's a very direct connection. With visual art, when there's no music that accompanies the art, such as great masterworks in a museum, you wind up interpreting what the artist is doing, how the artist made that work and what they're conveying.

When I was starting out with record companies, there was a tendency to simplify the image as a prodigy. I have more than one adjective, and I've always tried to be myself and listen to my instincts.

It's easy to be a prodigy. It's really hard to keep pushing in new directions.

I find that Bach is appealing to a lot of different audiences. It really hits people at their core in different ways, but it also creates a meditative space. I just feel like I can play it, and it reaches people.

I remember when I gave my first recital. I thought, 'Oh, my goodness, people are coming to hear me.' I didn't expect anyone to come, and then the whole hall filled up. Of course, it wasn't a big hall, and some of the people were my friends and family.

Everyone is always making transitions in life.

In music you can find your own niche. You can do what you want to do. There is really no job description. You have to find your own way, and that's fun.

The encore should wrap up the audience's experience of the piece you just played.

I've continued to pursue other interests in my downtime, but I'm glad I'm a musician. It's the perfect career for me.

It's really been enlightening for me to work with composers because I used to think that everything in the music was exactly what the composer meant. Well, it's what the composer meant in that moment when they wrote it.

I grew up without TV, I grew up listening to radio, I grew up reading.

By the time I was 12, I was starting my high school stuff in home schooling.

I think when a teacher says that you're ready for something, it means you're ready to learn it. It doesn't always mean that you are completely capable of doing everything that's inside the piece.

There's nothing I really wanted to record more than Bach. It's wonderful music. It's - on a grand scale, there's a lot to it. There are - I can work on it for a long time and keep discovering more things, you know, that surprise me every time.

You're not supposed to stop and listen and spy on people practicing. It's supposed to be a private thing. But it's when you come face-to-face with yourself and you look for your flaws and you try to fix them yourself, it's a really intimidating process. It can be very discouraging.

I was a student that responded well to knowing what to work on.

What I find really interesting is, whenever you see the person who gives you the portrait of yourself, the portrait seems to be a combination of their face and your face.

I've never loved composing, because I feel like other people do it better.

When you have live music in the background, people are usually talking over it. You don't actually get to listen to live music in your space all the time.

Is there such a thing as a normal childhood?

I feel like I had as normal a childhood as anyone, but it had a certain focus. Maybe other kids focused on sports.

The violin didn't keep me from doing things I wanted to do.

I like to record. It's very intense.

A concert is my experimentation time. I practice playing something several different ways, but in a concert, inevitably I get more ideas onstage, in that combination of focus and adrenaline, than I could ever get in the practice room.

Touring is a more varied and interesting existence than I would have imagined.

I get to work with a lot of great musicians - many I wouldn't have expected to work with - and see how they form their lives around their music and how they approach it.

When I was younger, I felt more like a student working with a mentor when I worked with the conductor, but now it feels more like equals.

For me, the conductor is a person who interprets along with me, and we interpret things together.

I learn a lot in interviews, I learn about how careers differ.

Writing is a good creative outlet... it's a supplement to my music.

Sometimes a person comes into an audience after a rough day, and they want to hear something they know.

Sometimes I like practicing, sometimes I don't. But I like the result... I hardly ever get discouraged. Maybe right when it's very hard to get something done correctly, but then the idea flashes through of how to fix it. And I get encouraged. And other ideas flow.

If my career doesn't work out as a violinist, I want to become an archaeologist. I've read about paleontology, too - that's dinosaur bones - but I thought it would be more interesting to do archaeology.

I guess I just like the idea of digging things up. Although I used to be scared of human skeletons.

Music can inspire immediate emotional reactions, even if the only person who hears it is the person creating it.

That word 'prodigy' has such a derogatory implication. It is used to describe people who are forced to play a lot of concerts very early, people whose audience comes because of their youth, people who are exploited. None of the above really applied to me.

Most kids are very seriously interested in something - friends, math, shopping, sports. For me it happened to be music and the violin. I had the chance to pursue it without having it get in the way of my life.

I try to prioritize a certain amount of quiet work every day.

I grew up not watching TV and I enjoy TV but it kind of takes my brain away from me.

I enjoy reading and thinking, and it's hard to make that space as an artist.

My teacher was still practicing Bach until his death at 89. I have no doubt that if I live that long, I'll be doing the same thing.

I go a lot to Korea and Japan.

I've been to New Zealand several times.

For vacation, I like going to places I've never been before. I've gone to some remote places, like the Arctic Circle.