James Levine

“It's just that, when the orchestra look at me, I want them to see a completely involved person who reflects what we rehearsed, and whose function is to make it possible for them to do it.”

“It wasn't that I ever knew I'd be at the Met for 20 years, or 30 years, or 40 years, or anything like that.”

“But the important thing is to lie down and fall asleep. That little nap means you wake up fresh again and can continue.”

“We found that when people put this issue on the table, it turns out that men acknowledge the issue, and employers and employees can work out solutions just as working mothers do.”

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

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

“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.”

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

“The invisible dilemma is that men face the very real problem that they don't feel comfortable bringing these issues up and they tend not to be acknowledged at work.”

“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.”

“You try on purpose to get players with different qualities which will rub off on one another.”

“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.”

“And, over the last thirty years we have seen men's participation in both housework and childcare has increased and women's have stayed at about the same.”

“So, the total number of hours spent on the stuff you have to do to take care of a family, working and caring for stuff at home, the total number of hours is actually about the same for mothers and fathers.”

“There is no relationship between the gestures and what an orchestra will do.”

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

“We do not seem to be finding tomorrow's Toscas.”

“Everybody blames the culture without taking responsibility.”