Itzhak Perlman famous quotes

Never miss an opportunity to teach; when you teach others, you teach yourself.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Opportunity #Missing #Teach

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.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Dream #Play #People

The most important thing to do is really listen.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Important

Nothing is better for my playing than teaching because when you teach, you have to think and you have to listen what other people do. And then all of a sudden, you play yourself and then you say, my goodness, I don't need a teacher. I'm my own teacher. Then I can react to what I'm doing immediately. It really improves.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Teacher #Teaching #Thinking

One of the most important elements in teaching, conducting, and performing, all three, is listening.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Teaching #Listening #Important

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.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Beautiful #Nice #Blue

Sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Artist #Tasks #Sometimes

Same thing with harmonies. If you hear something that harmonically is interesting, express it. So that's what I'm saying about talking the music rather than just playing through.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Talking #Interesting #Harmony

Don't play the way it goes. Play the way it is. And the way it is every time you play it, it's slightly different. Look for something. So that's the challenge not to be bored.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Play #Bored #Challenges

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.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Practice #Play #Goal

One of the great challenges is to know when things are not right.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Challenges

I always consider myself lucky that I can actually cry listening to some music.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Listening #Lucky #Cry

I always say separate your abilities from your disabilities. You know, if I could play the violin, I don't have to play it standing up. I can play it sitting down and so on.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Play #Sitting Down #Down And

There is nothing like a fine Italian sound.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Italian #Sound #Fine

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.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Sound #Different #Sparkle

I do three things. I do teaching, I do conducting and I do playing. And each one of those sort of helps the other.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Teaching #Three #Helping

I am playing the violin, that's all I know, nothing else, no education, no nothing. You just practice every day.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Practice #Violin

Competition can be the most nerve-racking experience. Some people just thrive on it.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Farewell #People #Competition

In difficult times, people just like to hear music. They like to be moved by what they hear. And music speaks different languages.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Music #People #Different

Ask many of us who are disabled what we would like in life and you would be surprised how few would say, 'Not to be disabled.' We accept our limitations.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Would Be #Accepting #Limitation

Preparing for a future in music is an expensive proposition.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Music Is #Preparing

Sometimes you get from the mouth of kids wonderful things.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Kids #Mouths #Sometimes

That's the goal, to survive your gift.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Goal

I couldn't only do one thing--I don't want the personal hell of oneness.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Oneness #Want #Hell

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.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Eye #Moon #Blue

There are people who are uncanny, who are finished products at a young age. I wasn't, thank God.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#People #Thank God #Age

For every child prodigy that you know about, at least 50 potential ones have burned out before you even heard about them.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Children #Prodigies #Heard

This machine, the wheelchair, I can go all over the place, but you need a place without stairs to get in.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Needs #Machines #Stairs

I love to work with young kids.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Kids #Young

This young wine may have a lot of tannins now, but in five or 10 years it is going to be spectacular, despite the fact that right now it tastes like crude oil. You know this is how it is supposed to taste at this stage of development.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Wine #Oil #Years

One must always practice slowly. If you learn something slowly, you forget it slowly.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Practice #Forget #Forget It

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.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Tasks #World #Firsts

For people who are really talented, what you don't say becomes extremely important. You have to judge what to say and what to leave alone so you can let the talent develop.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#People #Judging #Important

... 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 ...
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Music #Wonderful #Something New

... everybody has a different kind of talent and a different timetable as to when they develop ..
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Music #Different #Talent

I listen to kids play a lot.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Kids #Play

That makes classical music work, the ability to improvise.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Classical Music #Ability

So many things can drive you mad as a child, not only music.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Children #Mad

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!
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Couple #Paris #People

Child prodigy is a curse because you've got all those terrible possibilities.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Children #Possibility #Prodigies

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.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Opportunity #People #Challenges

I'm now doing three things: concerts, conducting, and teaching, and they each support each other. I learn to see things from different perspectives and listen with different ears. The most important thing that you need to do is really listen.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Teaching #Perspective #Support

I feel that you always pay when you are a child.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Children #Pay #Feels

Any gifted child can potentially get in real trouble because of the way they are handled.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Children #Real #Way

A sponge has that much absorbent capability and after a while you can pour water over it and nothing stays.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Water #Sponges #Over It

Every musical phrase has a purpose. It's like talking. If you talk with a particular purpose, people listen to you, but if you just recite, it's not as meaningful.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Inspirational #Meaningful #Talking

I don't feel that the conductor has real power. The orchestra has the power, and every member of it knows instantaneously if you're just beating time.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Real #Orchestra #Members

When you play a concerto with a small orchestra, you don't feel it is as important as Carnegie Hall. You try to work out all the little problems. Once that's all done, trust comes in.
-- Itzhak Perlman

#Trust #Play #Work Out