Most of the time I spend looking for the 25th hour in the day, the ninth day in the week, the 32nd day in the month and the 367th, eighth or 70th day in the year because I feel I have a very rich life.

I am the conductor for life of the Staatskapelle in Berlin, which fills me with tremendous joy because I feel absolutely at one with them. When we play, I have a feeling that together we manage to create one collective lung for the whole orchestra so that everybody in the stage breathes the music in the same way.

No one can be an artist without a rich inner life.

Holy cow, in the course of one week I feel like I've lived about a year!

My goal for next year, ... is to have at least one week a month where I spend every night in my own bed.

I got out of a jam in the eighth. I got a little wild in the ninth and I just got beat.