“There is no worse sound in the world than someone who cannot play the violin but insists on doing so anyway.”

“More so than with any other instrument, the violin becomes part of the body. Good musicians are physically dissolved when playing, and for violinists, who cannot see where to place their fingers and have nothing to guide them through touch, music must be more than ever about memory than fingertips and breath; the ventage is deeper, more of the self, closer to singing.”

“When I feel sad, I try to think of someone else in the world who is suffering worse than me. Like someone in Seattle, who is hurting so bad financially that instead of a vente coffee at Starbucks every morning, they have to downsize to grande.”

“What is worse than a quitter? Someone who is afraid to begin.”

“Being content is perhaps no less easy than playing the violin well: and requires no less practice.”

“A poet is a man who puts up a ladder to a star and climbs it while playing a violin.”