I like digging around. I'm a real magpie. I used to raid the old music shops in the early '50s in Paris and Brussels. You could pick up some incredible and often valuable music for almost nothing back then.

I am busy all day long. Never bored - I don't know what the word means.

When I started, I'd never had a conducting lesson in my life; I could just do it.

I'm very fortunate. I've led a charmed life, I think.

I think it's a mistake to work on success in career. I've worked on my passions obsessively. How can I say what I want to say more precisely than the last time I said it? Success is such an elusive concept. When you work for it, I think you get it in a way you might regret it.

When an employee asks why the company does things a certain way, and you can explain the logical reason, then the employee knows what she's doing is valid.

My career? I never think of it as a 'career.' Art and music and all those things that I'm creating are just part of me.

It is kind of nice for when people appreciate what you have done, but I would not base my career on awards because they are mostly popular awards and not talent-oriented awards.