Itzhak Perlman Quotes
-
Just imagine yourself in a wheelchair. Go through the building. If there's a place you can't go in, it's not accessible.
→ -
I can actually see the sound in my head. I can actually see it... But each sound is different so this one has that sparkle, there is a sparkle to the sound.
→ -
I love to work with young kids.
→ -
The Violin of my dreams. If you wanna play a pianissimo that is almost inaudible and yet it carries through a hall that seats 3,000 people, there's your Strad.
→ -
Another thing that you really do when you play, that you're supposed to do, is colors. You know, you cannot play with one color. If you play with one color, again, it's like watching a beautiful painting, a drawing, but it's all in blue or it's all in red. May be very nice, but not very interesting.
→ -
Perhaps our task in this shaky, fast-changing, bewildering world in which we live is to make music, at first with all that we have, and then, when that is no longer possible, to make music with what we have left.
→ -
A sponge has that much absorbent capability and after a while you can pour water over it and nothing stays.
→ -
Beethoven concertos ... Tchaicovsky concertos ... with a lot of these wonderful masterpieces there's always something wonderful to find ... there's always something new to find.
→ -
Life is not as easy as it could be for a person with a disability.
→ -
Another thing that I don't like to do is show too much how it goes. I do it once in a blue moon. Sometimes there are lessons when I don't pick up a violin at all.
→ -
There is nothing like a fine Italian sound.
→ -
The thing is that what you try to do when you play is you try to play not below a certain level. In other words, it can be a special day where it would be phenomenal, but if it's not below a certain level, that's the goal. You know, that's what you want to do. That's why you practice and so on.
→ -
For every child prodigy that you know about, at least 50 potential ones have burned out before you even heard about them.
→ -
I find personally that when I go to a place where I can't get in, I feel hostility from whatever it is, a hotel, a shop, a market, a street corner where there are no curb cuts, because somebody forgot to put them in, and where I have to go two blocks to the corner to do it. A lot of the excuses are, "Well, this is an old building." That's my favorite one. "This is an old building." It's as though 50 years ago, people with disabilities did not exist. As if the disabled are a new problem. It has always been a problem.
→ -
I am playing the violin, that's all I know, nothing else, no education, no nothing. You just practice every day.
→ -
Sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.
→ -
Not many people like it when they get criticism. Of course, if you have someone who does tell you and you do have a rapport, that's great. But don't rely on it. You have to rely on yourself.
→ -
That's the goal, to survive your gift.
→ -
One of the great challenges is to know when things are not right.
→ -
So many things can drive you mad as a child, not only music.
→ -
This machine, the wheelchair, I can go all over the place, but you need a place without stairs to get in.
→ -
I don't know if it's ever happened to you, but it's one of my funniest and saddest experiences, when you go into a hotel, and they have an accessible walk-in shower. So you go in and open the curtain, and there is a bench off to the side of the shower. However, the shower is rectangular. On one side there's a bench, but the faucets are across from you. So if you sit on the bench, you cannot reach the faucets.
→ -
That makes classical music work, the ability to improvise.
→ -
I look at raising funds for The Perlman Music Program as a challenge and as a way to provide opportunities for people who care about the future of classical music.
→ -
Believe me, I've had interviews where the person says, "So when did you start and why? What about your parents?" I say to them, "Please, have you heard of the word Google?"
→ -
In Paris they have special wheelchairs that go through every doorway. They don't change the doorways, they change the wheelchairs. To hell with the people! If someone weighs a couple more pounds, that's it!
→ -
I can't walk very well, but I'm not onstage to do walking. I'm on the stage to play.
→ -
Competition can be the most nerve-racking experience. Some people just thrive on it.
→ -
You decide to be a musician, you have to put in the time.
→ -
I listen to kids play a lot.
→
Related Authors
-
Joshua Bell Violinist -
Daniel Barenboim Pianist -
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Composer -
Vladimir Ashkenazy Conductor -
Zubin Mehta Conductor -
Fritz Kreisler Violinist -
Hilary Hahn Violinist -
John Towner Williams Film Score Composer -
Niccolo Paganini Violinist -
Andre Previn Pianist -
Isaac Stern Violinist -
James Levine Conductor -
Jascha Heifetz Violinist -
Jacqueline du Pre Cellist -
Ludwig van Beethoven Composer -
Yehudi Menuhin Violinist -
Johann Sebastian Bach Composer -
Pinchas Zukerman Violinist -
Yo-Yo Ma Cellist -
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Composer