Being a director or a conductor is a balance of many things. And to do it right is a very difficult tightrope to walk. I've come to the conclusion that there's really no way to be one hundred percent popular as conductor.

We live in the least ugly time in history.

I think music should be the basis of an education, not just something you do once a week.

Criticism is always hard to take - we musicians are sensitive. It's always hard when someone says something negative - but you try to learn to just let it roll off and not worry about it.

When I hear people clapping at the wrong times, I think that's great. We have got a listener that's not used to going to - we have got a new listener.

As my career has gone on, I guess I've become more well known. I'm playing to fuller halls in general, which is a nice feeling. When you're doing that, you're going to have a certain number of people who are not just the hardcore classical fanatics, and this makes me very happy.

At a music hall, I'll get upset if someone coughs or if someone's cellphone goes off.

When you play for ticket-holders, you are already validated. I have no sense that I need to be accepted. I'm already accepted.

The man on the street, he knows who Beethoven is, he knows who Mozart is.

I write arrangements. I'm sort of a wannabe composer.

I grew up in a musical family, but nobody was a professional musician.

I was lucky enough to have parents who started me on music very early, but most kids don't get that kind of exposure.

I like working with kids because I enjoy seeing the looks on their faces and, it's kind of selfish, I want a future audience.

I mean, the great secret is that an orchestra can actually play without a conductor at all. Of course, a great conductor will have a concept and will help them play together and unify them.

The violin sings.

You only live once, so I try to say yes to everything.

I use Facebook quite a lot to keep up with my friends, although I had to delete 'Words With Friends' from my phone because it was wasting too much of my time.

I want to do everything. That's my problem.

The best way to refine an interpretation is by getting out and performing.

Beethoven's symphonies are not 'relaxing.' They are the most exciting things that have ever been created by a human being.

I'm having a blast being the music director at the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. It certainly is challenging for me, but I love challenges.

Anyone who knows classical music and loves classical music has heard the Beethoven Seventh hundreds of times probably in their life.

I'm happy if my music is being downloaded, whether it's legally or illegally.

Obviously, I want it to be legally downloaded, and I myself have spent a fortune on iTunes because, for me, that's the easiest way to get music.

Art and music is part of what it means to be a human being. And if you're neglecting that, you're basically ignoring a huge side of the brain and a huge side of what it means to be human.

I have visited schools that have music programs and those that don't. I see the way the kids act with each other.

Music teaches people to work together, which is maybe one of the most important skills.

It's endless, the amount of things that music touches on that can help kids grow that are very, very practical.

For me, I'm sort of a wanna-be composer, and I love being involved with the arrangements.

Stradivarius, in particular, was the most amazing craftsman and one of the great artists and scientists that ever lived because he figured out something with the sound and the science of acoustics that we still don't understand it completely.

The beauty of a Stradivarius is that you can play in Carnegie Hall without any amplification, and it has this - the sound has, inside it, has something that projects, and it has multifaceted sound, something that kind of gets lost when you use amplification anyway.

We like to categorize things into showy things and deep things, you know, and things that are high music - important music - and shallow music. And I think that's dangerous, because there's often a mix of both.

People wrote the most beautiful things during the ugliest times.

We long to have a home where civil freedoms are respected, where our children will not be subject to mass surveillance, abuse of human rights, political censorship and mass incarceration.

We desire and thirst for freedom, democracy and the rule of law just like anyone else. And we are prepared to fight tooth and nail for all of those things.

As the remaining voices for civil disobedience are suppressed, the political spectrum narrows even further.

Hong Kong might be a small place, but its people make it unique. The iconic images of skyscrapers in this bustling metropolis are famous around the world, but it is the people of Hong Kong, standing up for their city on the streets, who make it truly great.

It may take a generation to achieve democracy. But our generation must accomplish this and not pass the buck to the next.

In a world where ideas and ideals flow freely, we want what everybody else in an advanced society seems to have: a say in our future.

People may recognize me as some sort of superhero, but it's different. Spider-Man and all these other superheroes, they get superpowers and do what they want to save the city. If we need to save Hong Kong, we can't rely on superpowers, we can just rely on the people.

When I was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018, I felt that this should go to all of the Hong Kong people who fight for democracy.

If a mass movement turns into worshipping a particular person, that's a great problem.

If I don't commit to fighting for the future, 20 years later, 30 years later, after the end of the expiration date of the joint declaration, Hong Kong will be more at risk and in greater danger.

I hope to make clear that involvement in small scale community work can make a difference in our city's politics.

Historically, Hong Kong has served as an important bridge between China and the world. Our freedoms, stability and the rule of law have been the reasons for our success.

Truth be told, relying on 'one country, two systems' to preserve our values is a lost cause.

If the Internet or air traffic of the financial center of the world shuts down, of course the world needs to have a say on it.

There's no doubt that the Chinese government is waging a full-fledged crackdown on Demosisto.

I hope Hong Kong isn't just named Hong Kong but it can still be the Hong Kong we desire.

We will continue civil disobedience to fight for democracy and for human rights in Hong Kong.