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All Quotes by author - Simon Rattle

" Always the journey, never the destination. "

" American economists can't understand the German fear of inflation and the effects of inflation when dealing with the world economic crisis. They wonder why Germany pursues such a different course - 'Why can't they agree with us?' I would have thought it was fairly obvious. "

" As a Liverpool boy, it is impossible not to think of the Beatles' question, 'Will you still need me when I'm 64?' "

" As a nation, we English tend to be self-deprecating, looking down on ourselves. We're insular but also flexible, whereas in Germany, it's a case of besser wissen - we know better. That's very Deutsch. People are never frightened to tell you what you're doing wrong, in a way that would never happen in England. "

" As an older dad you can certainly get down on the floor. The problem is can you get up again? "

" Beethoven was always too much. He's not slightly anything - he's very everything. "

" Conducting 'Tristan' is like floating in amniotic fluid, but having worked on it for three months, I now know why people who go near it go so strange. "

" Conductors make too much fuss about conductors! Humility and hard work are virtues. We're nothing without our musicians. "

" Conductors start getting good when everybody else retires. "

" Every orchestra has its own sound. "

" Germans have an understanding of history and cannot allow themselves to forget it. It may be a curse, but in some ways, it's a blessing. It makes them cautious. "

" I am old enough to remember the enormous fight over Tate Modern. It is such a part of our cultural landscape now, we forget the opposition to it. "

" I believe if you're not completely in love with what you're doing, you'd better find another profession. "

" I'd be much more likely to watch the latest Tarantino movie than to listen to a Mahler symphony. "

" I first heard Mahler's second symphony aged 11 in Liverpool, and it inspired me to become a conductor. "

" If you receive a whole string of bad reviews, you have to say, 'O.K., maybe there's something here we should pay attention to.' "

" If you think the music business is the be-all and end-all of life, you're in big trouble. "

" I love Mozart, but I often make a terrible hash of it. "

" In England, unless I am mistaken, I think some of the politicians who love classical music and opera are a bit loath to be seen there in case people think it is elitist. That is a real shame because it also means we are not allowing our politicians a hinterland that an earlier generation, a Denis Healey, would have taken for granted. "

" In my mid-twenties, I was with a conducting career, but I had never been to university and I wanted to. There were things I wanted to study in depth. I also wanted to see if I could survive without music. "

" I think Beethoven means dissonances to be more stressed than consonances - it's the shock tactician in him. "

" I think the English are an unbelievably musical nation and always have been. "

" I think we will find more and more ways in which technology invades our artistic spaces, so music is something you will need more than ever because it is there in time and in space and for that moment only. "

" It's interesting: composers can be very funny ducks. "

" I've always had a profound conviction that great music is about joy, even in the face of tragedy. "

" I've always loved French music. My parents adored it; my father played it on the piano. "

" I was a harpsichordist in my teens, and there was a bunch of us in Liverpool who got together every week to play Bach. "

" I was thrilled that Sadiq Khan was so in support of the idea of culture being at the centre of a city and the idea that it is everyone's right. It can't be a matter of privilege or chance. It should be something everyone can have in their life, and that means knowing what it is. "

" Learning music is a birthright. And you have to start young. "

" Liverpool is off the side of the known universe, and it always was. New York is the only other place comparable. "

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