I use my hands like a sculptor, to mold and shape the sound I want, to clarify.

How could a New Yorker possibly take something called the Hollywood String Quartet seriously?

I use my hands like a sculptor, to mold and shape the sound I want, to clarify.

A music director cannot and should not be chosen on the basis of a first date. It is not so difficult to make a good impression with a single appearance, usually containing some of a conductor's party pieces, works they have performed successfully many times before.

An orchestra knows during the first two minutes of the first rehearsal whether or not they are going to enjoy the person on the podium.

Growing up in Hollywood, like I did, I have a passion and a love for the movies, so I go to the cinema all the time.

I am usually cooking at least four times a week if I am home. The easiest thing that I do a lot is gazpacho. It's simple and it tastes best if you let it sit over night in the refrigerator... I don't want anybody near me when I am cooking. If I am going to make a mistake, it has to be my fault.

I don't really think about retiring. I will retire just before people start saying, 'I knew Leonard Slatkin when he conducted well.'

I have been long associated with British music. I have favoured it as my alternate music next to American.

I knew I could never match my father as a violinist, and there were already four generations of outstanding cellists in the family.

I'll know I'm reaching the total American market when I'm asked to do a video for MTV.

I'm beginning to see that just knowing the piece is not enough. Having a clear technique is not enough. Having a broad repertory is not enough. I want desperately to get past all those things.

I'm not particularly lucid after a concert. I'm not very lucid before, either.

I've come to the conclusion that a long, personal relationship is next to impossible for me. Ultimately, music is a possessive mistress.

In some ways I believe music is the more convincing communicator of ideas than words. For instance, we can hear of Kordaly and Bartok and recognise them as Hungarian, but very few of us speak Hungarian, but the music itself speaks to more people.

On the corner of 57th and 7th Avenue sits the most famous concert hall in the world. No less a figure than when Tchaikovsky led the first performances in 1891. Virtually every major artist has performed there. There is simply no place like it. The first time I stepped foot in Carnegie Hall was in 1964.

Over the years it has been my privilege to lead performances with Saint Louis, the National Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra and so many other wonderful organizations.

People know Detroit for the cars, but the suburban areas of the city are really beautiful. It's much more inhabitable than people think. Many believe it's like Berlin at the end of World War II.

Randy Newman and I grew up together in Los Angeles. We are both products of the film studio era. Randy is one of the great songwriters of our time and one of the fun people to be with.

The conductor is the artistic leader and sometimes cultural arbiter of his or her community. It is their leadership that is looked to and should anything go wrong, they are the persons taking most of the heat.

The convergence of the Rhone and Saone. Paul Bocuse. The birthplace of cinema. Chateauneuf-du-Pape just a few miles down the road. It does not get much better than Lyon.

The life of any musician really doesn't fall into a normal schedule at all. Every week there are different rehearsals, different days and nights of performances, so we don't have a particular pattern that we can follow. For a conductor, it is a little bit worse because we have to allow for traveling.

The role of an orchestra in the 21st century isn't just playing, it's about developing future audiences and performers.

There is no 'perfect' in music. If I ever came off the stage and felt it could not be better, it would then be time to quit.

There's not an orchestra in the world that doesn't have weaknesses. None of us can play everything well. The repertoire is just too big.

To my mind and ear, there is simply nothing that compares to the musical sophistication of a late Beethoven, Bartok, Schubert or Brahms work for minimal forces.

We are a global society, and one does not have to be from Germany to give a great performance of Beethoven.

People know Detroit for the cars but the suburban areas of the city are really beautiful. Its much more inhabitable than people think. Many believe its like Berlin at the end of World War II.

If you want something that's going to provide you with a lot of challenges and a variety of different things to do, then you really can't beat a place like the Air Force. I don't mean this to sound like a recruiting pitch. But it's been a lot of fun.

Most bands have a sound that they're already identified with, so for the producer it becomes a process of helping them find their muse in the studio to make a record that will not only satisfy them artistically, but will also do something in the marketplace.

Never play anything that don't sound right. You might not make any money, but at least you won't get hostile with yourself.

I don't want to sound pompous, but I really think your gender doesn't necessarily dominate your sexual activity.

You get a heck of a sound from the church. Can't you hear it in my voice?

It's clear to me that there is no good reason for many philosophy books to sound as complicated as they do.

I am not a sound bite person. I prefer to run at the mouth.

This is going to sound strange, but I really didn't think I would pass 30. I don't know why or whatever, I just didn't. That's a very weird thing to say, I'm sorry. I don't know. Maybe it's because I was drinking so much as a youth.

People say that I could sing the phone book and make it sound good.

Handcuffing the ability of states and localities to develop clean fuels in the cheapest possible way, using local resources, is not sound or sensible policy.

I don't know the vast majority of you personally, and it may sound kind of corny, but I really feel as if we've become friends through the years. And you've been with me during a lot of good times and some very difficult ones. I can't tell you how grateful I am.

In my fifty years of experience and memory, I have seen the most amazing increase in the standard of living of a people ever achieved anywhere in the world. This is why I am so sure that our system of free competition and industrial development is sound and must be preserved.

The President had every reason to believe that the text presented to him was sound... These 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the president.

The soprano turned out to sound to me like the right hand on the piano.

I'd never try to be that distinctive from the Bee Gees' sound. I'm very proud of being a Bee Gee and am always aware that I'll be identified as a Bee Gee.

And I think I find, I know a lot of people around, in different cities, and so it's not - it might sound strange - but it's not that hard to say good-bye, because I know there's other people where I'm going. I can sort of fit in in a lot of places.

We suspect Dr. Clutterbuck's sense of hearing must be injured: for him the 'ear trumpet' magnifies but distorts sound, rendering it less distinct than before.

If you're not Prince, you're never going to sound like Prince.

From each one of them rose separate columns of smoke, meeting in a pall overhead, and through the smoke came stabbing flashes of fire as German shells burst with thudding shocks of sound. This was the front line of battle.

Sound is the vocabulary of nature.

I want to take some jams and really concentrate on hooking up with Page because, since he's the only one not next to me, and his sound is mainly coming from my monitor rather than through the air, it's a little harder for me to hook up with him.