Joshua Bell Quotations | Page 2

The great secret is that an orchestra can actually play without a conductor at all. Of course, a great conductor will have a concept and will help them play together and unify them. But there are conductors that actually inhibit the players from playing with each other properly.

I don't sleep with a violin in my bed, but there is something very magical about the instrument. You open up the case; it's a masterpiece, it's gorgeous, the varnish is still there from 300 years ago. People who know violins, they look at it and it's almost like a face.

Kids need to be structured in some way, but you don't want to force something down their throats that they have no interest in. You have to find the right balance.

We live in the least ugly time in history. If you look at back when Beethoven was writing, half the kids were dying, mothers were dying at childbirth, there were more wars going on then than there are now. People wrote the most beautiful things during the ugliest times.

If you mess up the tiniest little thing in the Beethoven concerto, or the phrasing isn't just exactly perfectly executed, Beethoven brings out the worst in the best violinist. You almost never hear a satisfying performance, because it doesn't play itself.

I open up my violin case every day, and have one of the great creations. It is very inspiring. It makes you want to practice. How can you open up a case and look at a violin that was made in 1713 by one of the greatest artists in history and then say, "No, I don't feel like practicing today."

There are days that I get neurotic with the violin. Every little adjustment will change the balance for good or for bad. It's kind of a miracle, the way the whole thing works as an acoustical whole, so perfectly balanced.

There's nothing more frustrating than seeing a conductor say, 'Play softer,' as they're waving their hands in huge gestures.

At a music hall, I'll get upset if someone coughs or if someone's cellphone goes off.

I always find it funny when people say, "I don't really like classical music" or "it doesn't do anything for me." I tell them, "Well, you know, it does. You go to films and you're responding to it, and you've heard it..." It's controlling you! So don't think you're not being affected. It's a great medium for music.

Although I hardly ever turn on the TV set unless it's football season, I do watch a lot of TV on my iPad - perfect for long airplane journeys.

I write arrangements. Im sort of a wannabe composer.

I want to do everything. That's my problem.

I was lucky enough to have parents who started me on music very early, but most kids don't get that kind of exposure.

No one tells you what to do if you completely flop at the beginning of a performance.

Over the years, I've collected a lot of musical friends.

So much of performing is a mind game.

I love the outdoor festival feeling.

Music plays a huge role in the movie. The music in Star Wars, I can't imagine what the movie would have been like without it. It made the film.

We live in the least ugly time in history.

What drew me to the violin was mastering the instrument technically, which I'm continuing to do.

When you play for ticket-holders, you are already validated. I have no sense that I need to be accepted. I'm already accepted.

I don't listen to a lot of music when I have my free time. But I'll go to a jazz club and have a drink and listen to a good jazz musician. Or sometimes in the morning, if I want to put myself in a good mood, I'll put on some Latin music.

You don't have to have lots of love affairs to know what love is.

You only live once, so I try to say yes to everything.

Conducting is a strange thing to teach.

Actors want to do Shakespeare again and again, or want to do Hamlet. When you hear one guy do Hamlet and another guy do it, it's going to be a whole different experience.

I don't want to portray myself as a daredevil. I'm not at all.

I grew up in a musical family, but nobody was a professional musician.

I like trying things, I am kind of adventurous and I like thrill seeking.

There are some great teachers who have had great students, but they themselves can't play a note. I don't understand it, because the most I learned from my teacher was just hearing him play.

I like working with kids because I enjoy seeing the looks on their faces and, it's kind of selfish, I want a future audience.

I never had any real expectations about what sort of success I would have or all the publicity.

Every orchestra is different. Sometimes, you're blown away by a particular musician. If I'm playing the Brahms concerto, it's crucial to have a great oboe player, because we work in tandem.

There are some days I take my violin out and it feels dreadful, like nothing is responding, and I want to sell it and get rid of it. And the next day suddenly the skies open up and the sound is glorious again. So it's like a relationship: There are good days and bad days.

I hope I will always have the chance to play the violin.

When you play a violin piece, you are a storyteller, and you're telling a story.

The best way to refine an interpretation is by getting out and performing.