Classical music is one of the best things that ever happened to mankind. If you get introduced to it in the right… — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share Image
Music is powered by ideas. If you don't have clarity of ideas, you're just communicating sheer sound. — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share Image
I think of a piece of music as something that comes alive when it is being performed, and I feel that my… — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share Image
Music is one of the ways we can achieve a kind of shorthand to understand each other. — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share Image
I think the purpose of a piece of music is significant when it actually lives in somebody else. A composer puts down… — 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
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 Image
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 Image
My involvement in the political arena is to make sure there's a place for culture. — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share Image
When we enlarge our view of the world, we deepen our understanding of our own lives. — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share Image
People will ask, 'Are you famous?' And I always answer, 'My mother thinks so.' — Yo-Yo Ma Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
