Simon Rattle

“'Parsifal' is one of the great examples in art of a work that transcends the personality of the man who wrote it.”

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

“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 think the English are an unbelievably musical nation and always have been.”

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

“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.”

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

“Every orchestra has its own sound.”

“Orchestras are like people. They're the sonic embodiment of their community.”

“The necessity for rules and strictness is a way of dealing with an enormously powerful impulse: Germans are among the most emotional people on the planet. Maybe it has to do with the fact that, as a nation, they are always drawn back to nature and the forest.”

“'Career' is not a musical term.”

“Yes, I was a weird duck, no doubt.”

“One of the most difficult things in opera is for people to suspend disbelief.”

“You don't like Liverpool: you either loathe it or you love it. And I don't know anyone who loathes it and comes from it.”

“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.”

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

“We need to bring music to the people, even to those who normally do not listen to classical music.”

“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.”

“The jazz records come out a lot. You find that with many musicians - we don't listen to our own music for relaxation.”

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