James Levine

I thought I'd write one book and the world would change overnight.

A lot of people get impatient with the pace of change.

At my age, you are naturally inclined towards teaching.

More and more couples are having this negotiation or discussion, but I'm still amazed at the number who aren't and where the cultural norm sort of kicks in and they just assume that mom's got to be the one who stays home, not dad.

I was lucky that I met the right mentors and teachers at the right moment.

I grew up in an era where an orchestra was like a treasure chest.

It has to be able to play at the maximum expression and communication in every style, and the only way you can do that is - like Verdi said - working with a file, every day, little by little, until the orchestra's collective qualities emerge.

I can imagine wanting to work with this ensemble and this company always.

When they are performing in front of the public, they ought to have a sensation that's relatively easy, if the technical and the interpretive work was done before.

They've really got to recognize that all of us bring some of our family issues to work and our work home.

If you factor in not just who's doing what at home, but how much more time working fathers are spending on work outside the home, on average they spend two hours more per day outside the home.

And so, little by little, I gradually divested myself of pretty nearly all of the guest conducting I used to do, because I was at the same time working in the places like the Met, where I could work in this sort of depth.