People will ask, 'Are you famous?' And I always answer, 'My mother thinks so.' — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share Image
One of the most interesting aspects of the film project was collaborating with so many people - directors, filmmakers, and writers -… — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share Image
When you learn something from people, or from a culture, you accept it as a gift, and it is your lifelong commitment… — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share Image
Music enhances the education of our children by helping them to make connections and broadening the depth with which they think and… — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share Image
Music has always been transnational; people pick up whatever interests them, and certainly a lot of classical music has absorbed influences from… — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share Image
I've been traveling all over the world for 25 years, performing, talking to people, studying their cultures and musical instruments, and I… — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share Image
When people ask me how they should approach performance, I always tell them the professional musician should aspire to the state of… — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share Image
What came up at age 49 is I realized that of all the things I'm interested in, the thing I'm most interested… — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share Image
I play an instrument that has four strings, and I'm still trying to get it right. What I've tried to do in… — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share Image
I really would like to be involved in things and to understand things, and in some ways you've got to be careful… — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share Image
With every year of playing, you want to relax one more muscle. Why? Because the more tense you are, the less you can hear. — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share
A composition is always more than the sum of its parts. In other words, a really good piece of music is more than itself.… — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share
My involvement in the political arena is to make sure there's a place for culture. — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share
When we enlarge our view of the world, we deepen our understanding of our own lives. — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share
I remember when I was growing up. My great wish was to understand who I was and how I fit in the world. — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share
It took me way beyond what I knew, into places of which I was totally scared, but as I became less frightened, I welcomed… — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share
One is that you have to take time, lots of time, to let an idea grow from within. The second is that when you… — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share
You go through phases. You have to reinvent reasons for playing, and one year's answer might not do for another. — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share
When people ask me how they should approach performance, I always tell them the professional musician should aspire to the state of the beginner. — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share
Mastering music is more than learning technical skills. Practicing is about quality, not quantity. Some days I practice for hours; other days it will… — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share
Jazz has been such a force in music, that any musician, including classical composers, have been influenced, and obviously performers, also. — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share
Practicing is not only playing your instrument, either by yourself or rehearsing with others - it also includes imagining yourself practicing. Your brain forms… — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share
