Music is the message of peace, and music only brings peace.
Zubin Mehta
I think conductors do spend too little time with their orchestras.
Let's try to count the number of Nobel prize-winners that have emerged from scientific centres of excellence like the Weizmann Institute and Haifa's technical university, the Technion. There has to be at least 25.
My temples are only in India. When I am in India, I go to the religious ceremonies.
My father was a trained accountant, a BCom from Sydenham College and a self-taught violinist. In the 1920s, when he was in his teens, he heard a great violinist, Jascha Heifetz, and he was so inspired listening to him that he bought himself a violin, and with a little help from an Italian teacher, he learned to play it.
I love the creativity of New York, but I don't enjoy the city - I don't like living here.
After conducting Wagner, Beethoven's triple concerto is like taking an Alka Seltzer.
Citizens of India, Pakistan, and Kashmir need to come together and make music.
New York is really the place to be; to go to New York, you're going to the center of the world, the lion's den.
There are three orchestras in Munich, all world-quality, in a city of one million. Yet every hall is full.
In Bombay, we have a fine concert hall. I think it is high time we built venues in Delhi and Calcutta, not only for western music, but also Indian music. It doesn't matter which party is in power; don't you think the capital of India should have a concert hall?
If you can sing together, you can live together.
Rock music is predictable, unless there's great talent involved.
There are certainly talented instrumentalists coming from India. I see them performing all over the world.
Wagner's philosophy had absolutely nothing to do with Bruckner. Bruckner hadn't written a single word against Jews. Wagner's book on the Jews was one of the most infamous books of the 19th century.
I am an Indian, so I do yoga.
I sometimes feel it is to my disadvantage that I have not conducted the Cleveland Orchestra or the Boston or Chicago symphonies, but then I have had to sacrifice something in order to have enough time with my orchestras.
My life is so full of sacrifices.
I would convert to Judaism if the operation didn't hurt so much.
Most Arab Israelis speak Hebrew, but not the other way around. It's about time that changed.
I wish that only three residents of Tel Aviv could see what conditions on the West Bank are like. Living in such proximity, most Israelis have no idea about the adversity on the West Bank.
I respect the Indian government for the fact that there are no settlements in Kashmir.
You might say that Richard Wagner was the Queen Victoria of Europe. He had musical children everywhere!
Though there is such a rich tradition of culture and arts, I have never been invited to perform at a concert in South India.
I love India.
I'm really not a party person. I'm in the business of working with 100 people every day, so I don't revel in meeting a roomful of people in my leisure time.
Israel gives the West Bank water twice a week! One way of promoting good would be not to ration water.
There is a school in Israel called Hand in Hand which I support. There Arab and Jewish students study together on a daily basis.
I am always hearing from Israelis, 'Oh, CNN is anti-Israel,' or 'BBC is against us.' But no, they are reporting facts.
I am not only a Parsi, I am a Kashmiri too.
As soon as, say, Saddam Hussein started bombing Israel with Scuds, everyone was like, 'Poor Israel.' But when Israel retaliates - and most of the time they then win - people turn against them.
I knew at university that medicine was just not for me. I saved many lives by not being a doctor!
The 'New York Times' reviews of my work have been evenly divided - favourable and unfavourable.
I am often critical of Israel's policies when in the country, but then feel defensive of them when overseas.
We are so indebted to our ancestors, musically speaking, that they have left us 400 years of music.
One learns how to change gears within a concert repertoire.
Open rehearsals reach people who might not otherwise hear the Philharmonic - people on fixed incomes, people who can't move easily at night, students.
My tastes are Viennese.
I just want to play for Hindus and Muslims that sit together. That's all I want to do.
I feel growing up in Mumbai is an advantage, as we grow up speaking so many languages that when we go abroad, it becomes easier to learn new languages.
I miss the standard of the New York Philharmonic's playing very much. It has certainly been a high point in my life.
Just imagine, the thousands and thousands of concerts that take place every single day, all over the world. And the positive effect that they would have on the people listening. Now imagine a world without this. This void... it is unthinkable.
I love rap because it talks about pain that comes authentically from the ghetto. It moves me.
I'm hopeful that Israelis can go to Ramallah whenever they want and see how the people are living.
It's hard to find an emblem of cultural, national pride that burns as bright as Israel's success in classical music.
The amount of culture going on in a small country like Israel is amazing.
In Chicago, they die for their teams.
New York for a long time was a kind of conductor's graveyard.
One shouldn't know the future.
Israel is a piece of real estate that neither Jew or Arab will let go of; neither will leave these shores. And so they will have to learn to live together.
