I like when things happen very quickly, just flash in and flash out. It keeps things interesting.

Growing up as a classical musician, you're taught a lot about outreach and about how people aren't being taught music in school. But you don't have to study music to like it. And a lot of the music that people like - be it jazz or rock or opera - is stuff they haven't studied.

Taking on music that's not played very much is a contribution I can give. There's so much I feel that needs more attention.

Whenever I work with people who are nonclassical artists, I kind of get a kick in the pants. I think, 'How can I apply what I do to their music?'

I'm more creative the more rules I have - note values, tempos, dynamic markings. Somehow, I find that really inspiring.

In the performance sense, I find that interpretation is improvisatory in nature. You can go anywhere with an interpretation on any given day.

When I started my recording career, I hoped that someday the Grammy committee would notice something.

With a Grammy, if you're releasing your record with a major label, you have a chance with any record. You also have a very long shot with every record.

One challenge, if you do a website, a Youtube channel, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Ping, other things like that, is you don't have time to be an artist. As a performer, you need to practice.

Deutsche Grammophon really has a grasp of the classical repertoire.

I grew up in Baltimore.

When you have a teacher who is part of a tradition, the other people in that tradition are such stars. You just look at them like pop stars.

The nice thing about the violin repertoire is that it's small enough that you can plan on learning everything at some point - whereas the piano repertoire is so enormous it wouldn't be possible unless you're a learning machine.

My career direction has probably been guided as much by curiosity and my personality as by my early influences.

I have a lot of interests. I daydreamed about various career options growing up; the one I'm in is the first one that worked out, and I love it, so I feel very lucky.

As a professional, you pick up ideas from your colleagues and the orchestras you work with, while coming up with mutual interpretations in very short periods of time.

I try to do a lot of direct contact with the audience, because the audience is part of the concert, too, as much as anyone on stage, and it's a shame not to get to meet them if you get the chance.

One of the most rewarding things is meeting someone after a concert who has never been to a concert before. It is incredibly rewarding when they say, 'This is my first classical concert.' It is really exciting for everyone.

I have always enjoyed literature classes, and I took a fiction workshop for writing and analyzing at Curtis... I don't know if would do it professionally, but it's nice to have the balance with the music.

Musicians are also interpretive artists and we are just as creative as painters and writers. We interpret in a way that expresses ourselves.

I am not trying to be cooler or change my image or get into pop music.

If you start censoring what you're interested in for the audience, you don't give the audience enough credit.

The audience will find the artist who matches their interests. If you're not being true to yourself, your audience can't find you, because there's a wall up between who you are and who they're seeing.

I don't think there's such a difference between older and newer music as there is between one composer and another.

Sometimes, I'm not sure why I wind up doing some of the things I do.

You couldn't be performing if it weren't for the audience. I appreciate them being there. So why not applaud them? They took time out of their schedule to show up and sit in the concert hall and be part of the experience.

It's fine with me if people want to applaud between movements of a concerto. It doesn't bother me - it's part of performance experience.

I always feel I have a long way to go in my playing and my music.

You never know what's going on in someone's life. You never know what's really going on behind what they present.

My friend is a former race car driver, so he races for Mercedes, and I root for him. I have a car that I love to race, I'll take it to the track.

Fundamentally, we all want the same thing. We want to love. We want to be loved, and we want to matter.

My first two books, 'Letters to a Young Brother' and 'Letters to a Young Sister,' were... distributed pretty widely. Judges in juvenile justice facilities started citing the book as required reading.

Once you have a felony conviction on your record, one of the most difficult things to do is to break the cycle of recidivism.

The word 'courage,' one of my favorite words, the root or the etymology of that word is 'cour,' which means heart. I think true courage is actually following your heart and not getting or succumbing to what other people's definition of what your life should be. Live your life.

You deserve a great life. I want to see you become unreasonably happy. And you can. And you will.

I champion the idea of being more conscious. I call it being an active architect of your own life. Building your life like an architect builds a structure.

You can live a healthy lifestyle and do the best to be aware of your body and conscious, and that's what I attempt to do.

Many of us are in are in our own prisons that aren't made of iron bars.

If you can't get excited about living life, then what are you doing?

My father passed from cancer in 2000; his brother died of cancer before that. My grandfather died of cancer.

I've gotten a firsthand view at the destruction that black men and black women not being able to stay and build healthy relationships has had on the black family and black children.

Without writers, none of the entertainment would exist. It starts with writers. Writers are the most important piece of the entire puzzle.

The most impactful place that I've been to where I was just completely awestruck, happy, moved is Victoria Falls between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is probably the most beautiful and romantic place in the world.

So many of our young women today, they're growing up without a father, but they're still thirsty for that and desiring positive male love.

All work and no play make any forensic pathologist a dull boy.

Poverty existed before January 20, 2008, OK? Before President Obama took office.

On 'CSI: NY,' the audience knew I was a really good guy, and I caught the bad guy.

There's nothing wrong with wanting a partner and doing the things to have one. To protect ourselves, we have to say, 'I don't need one.'

Dr. King said, 'We are all tied together in a garment of mutual destiny.' Which says to me no matter how well I may be doing in Hollywood, if a young brother or sister in Louisiana, the South Bronx, the South Side of Chicago, South Central Los Angeles - is not doing well, then I'm not doing very well.

On the male side of my family, cancer has been very insidious, and so I'm just attempting to live a lifestyle that doesn't follow in their footsteps.