Quotes

(About Shostakovich) "He was the most important man in my life, after my father. Sometimes when I'm conducting, I see his face coming to me. Sometimes it's not really a happy face - I conduct maybe a bit too slow, so I conduct faster, and the face disappears."

When I started learning the cello, I fell in love with the instrument because it seemed like a voice - my voice. - 1997 interview, Strad magazine.

You know creators, composers, need a palette for life, a color for life. If he is only happy with his life, I think that he does not fully understand what is happiness. - 2002 AP interview

When Leonid Brezhnev stripped us of our citizenship in 1978, we were obliterated. Russia was in my heart - in my mind. I suffered because I knew that until the day I died, I would never see Russia or my friends again. - 1997 interview, Strad Magazine

My mother carried me for 10 months. I asked her 'Mother, you had an extra month, why you didn't make me a beautiful face?' and mother told me, 'My son, I was busy making your beautiful hands and heart.