Joshua Bell Quotes
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I write arrangements. Im sort of a wannabe composer.
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I think if there's ever been a time we need music more, it's now. For our kids, it teaches you to take time, to listen, to work together, to listen to other people, and to use your brain. That's why classical music doesn't work when you throw it at people in a subway platform while they're rushing to work. Classical music is something that needs to be contemplated, you have to be completely present with an active mind that's working. It's not background music.
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Conducting is a strange thing to teach.
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When you play a violin piece, you are a storyteller, and you're telling a story.
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I hope I will always have the chance to play the violin.
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I open up my violin case every day, and have one of the great creations. It is very inspiring. It makes you want to practice. How can you open up a case and look at a violin that was made in 1713 by one of the greatest artists in history and then say, "No, I don't feel like practicing today."
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Actors want to do Shakespeare again and again, or want to do Hamlet. When you hear one guy do Hamlet and another guy do it, it's going to be a whole different experience.
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I don't want to portray myself as a daredevil. I'm not at all.
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So much of performing is a mind game.
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The best way to refine an interpretation is by getting out and performing.
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Every orchestra is different. Sometimes, you're blown away by a particular musician. If I'm playing the Brahms concerto, it's crucial to have a great oboe player, because we work in tandem.
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At a music hall, I'll get upset if someone coughs or if someone's cellphone goes off.
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When you play for ticket-holders, you are already validated. I have no sense that I need to be accepted. I'm already accepted.
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If you mess up the tiniest little thing in the Beethoven concerto, or the phrasing isn't just exactly perfectly executed, Beethoven brings out the worst in the best violinist. You almost never hear a satisfying performance, because it doesn't play itself.
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You don't have to have lots of love affairs to know what love is.
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Over the years, I've collected a lot of musical friends.
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Being a classical musician, you're doing many things anyway. One day you're doing Bach concerto and the next you're doing some avant-garde thing. It's just another hat that I'm allowed to wear.
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Kids need to be structured in some way, but you don't want to force something down their throats that they have no interest in.
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I want to do everything. That's my problem.
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We live in the least ugly time in history.
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Although I hardly ever turn on the TV set unless it's football season, I do watch a lot of TV on my iPad - perfect for long airplane journeys.
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I was lucky enough to have parents who started me on music very early, but most kids don't get that kind of exposure.
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What drew me to the violin was mastering the instrument technically, which I'm continuing to do.
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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.
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There are some great teachers who have had great students, but they themselves can't play a note. I don't understand it, because the most I learned from my teacher was just hearing him play.
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I like trying things, I am kind of adventurous and I like thrill seeking.
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I don't listen to a lot of music when I have my free time. But I'll go to a jazz club and have a drink and listen to a good jazz musician. Or sometimes in the morning, if I want to put myself in a good mood, I'll put on some Latin music.
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I always find it funny when people say, "I don't really like classical music" or "it doesn't do anything for me." I tell them, "Well, you know, it does. You go to films and you're responding to it, and you've heard it..." It's controlling you! So don't think you're not being affected. It's a great medium for music.
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Social media puts us inside our phones and our computers and our headphones, and we're not connecting so much with our outside environment. Even when people go to the Grand Canyon they're more concerned about the selfies than actually looking at the canyon. I see it with my own kids - the addiction to needing things fast, never pausing to just see what's around us and connect with our fellow human beings in real time.
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I never had any real expectations about what sort of success I would have or all the publicity.
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