Andre Rieu

“I admire Johann Strauss a lot. I believe he was a genius of his time.”

“I think there are people who use classical music to say, 'I am better than you, because I know all the rules and you don't.' You're not allowed to have fun or entertain.”

“I was so busy with my studies that I didn't have a musical idol as a teenager. Later, around my 20s, I suddenly discovered the Beatles and the Rolling Stones but I guess my musical idol has always been Strauss.”

“I am a showman in the traditional sense, but modern, too. I like to use sets and lighting to create magic.”

“I first picked up a violin aged five - I just assumed everyone played.”

“Other people might want a Ferrari, but I wanted a butterfly house. I built it together with a blacksmith. We designed it together.”

“I was a fat child and loved cake, perhaps because it was the only sweet thing in my life.”

“I am travelling half the year around the world, every year, so coming home is one of the most beautiful things.”

“It is a real piece of art if you can make a waltz sound like it is the easiest piece of music to play, because it's really not.”

“I was the black sheep of the family, and my mother never really understood me.”

“The classical music world is so snobbish.”

“When my twin grandchildren, Linda and Lyeke, were born two years ago, it changed me. I felt it was the essence of what life is about, and I cried all day. When my son Pierre, their father, was born I didn't cry like that.”

“It doesn't matter as long as there's interaction between me and the audience. That's why they come.”

“People don't come to my concerts because they know the program. They come because they love the atmosphere and because they know that when I offer them a program it will be a night they never forget.”

“When I'm not on tour, I love to have a long breakfast at home in my garden.”

“I believe that music in itself heals and that everything is about the power of the mind. I thought if you are happy, you don't get ill. Your health is in your head. When you are satisfied with your work, you don't get ill.”

“I know that when I like music, when it touches my heart, that it will touch your heart, too. That, I think, is the secret to my success.”

“The waltz can be sad and at the same time uplifting. You have to see life from both sides, and the waltz encapsulates that. If you're in my audience you give yourself to me and the waltz will grab you.”

“Now, I've changed my life to make sure I work only on what I love.”

“I have 120 people in my payroll without any government giving me any money. We live off the tickets and the records I sell. That is very unusual.”