Quotes from Itzhak Perlman

I always find that there is a real communication between voice and violin.

I say to string players in small chamber orchestras, 'it's always easy to become a passenger on the journey in sound, just adding volume to the whole. But if you play in an individual way, it makes the difference between good and great sound in an orchestra.'

My oldest daughter is a pianist; she plays concerts. We play together, also.

I met my wife in music camp. She's got great ears, and we have a relationship where she's not afraid to tell me anything. If something's going on in my playing, she will tell me about it, and that's very, very important.

Access Living is a powerful voice for people in the Chicago area who live with disabilities.

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

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.

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.

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

Believe me, I've had interviews where the person says, 'So when did you start and why? What about your parents?' I say to them, 'Please, have you heard of the word 'Google?'

Israel is the country of my birth. When I come here, I feel I'm coming home.

Brahms is one of my all-time favorite composers.

My experience with the Detroit Symphony has been musically very satisfying. They have a wonderful sound, which for me is one of the most important qualities in an orchestra.

The 'Mozart Symphony No. 27' is an early composition. I find it charming.

'Kol Nidrei' is probably the most important prayer in the Jewish religion. It comes on the evening of Yom Kippur. There are so many different renditions of it.

Everybody's saying, you know, 'You're so heroic and so on despite of the polio that you had and so on.' Look, I had polio when I was four. So when you're four years old, you know, you get used to things very, very quickly.

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

The thing is that I always consider myself lucky that I can actually cry listening to some music.

A talented child will have a schedule that is horrendous. You get up and practice, go to school, practice some more, eat dinner, and then you have homework.

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.

When I came to the United States, I appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show as a 13-year-old, and I played a Mendelssohn Concerto, and it sounded like a talented 13-year-old with a lot of promise. But it did not sound like a finished product.

My message is that giving is very important. Giving is a Jewish thing, and I like to talk about that. There's nothing more important, personally, for anybody than being able to give.

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

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!