Zubin Mehta

“I feel that the critic and music director should have such a good relationship they can pick up the phone and call each other any time.”

“I am jealous of all those people who live on the shore of Dal Lake.”

“I'm really not a party person. I'm in the business of working with 100 people every day, so I don't revel in meeting a roomful of people in my leisure time.”

“Indian hotels are doing well globally because they understand hospitality.”

“I would convert to Judaism if the operation didn't hurt so much.”

“Wagner's philosophy had absolutely nothing to do with Bruckner. Bruckner hadn't written a single word against Jews. Wagner's book on the Jews was one of the most infamous books of the 19th century.”

“I think conductors do spend too little time with their orchestras.”

“Let's try to count the number of Nobel prize-winners that have emerged from scientific centres of excellence like the Weizmann Institute and Haifa's technical university, the Technion. There has to be at least 25.”

“One shouldn't know the future.”

“Citizens of India, Pakistan, and Kashmir need to come together and make music.”

“Most Arab Israelis speak Hebrew, but not the other way around. It's about time that changed.”

“I believe in music.”

“I knew at university that medicine was just not for me. I saved many lives by not being a doctor!”

“In Bombay, we have a fine concert hall. I think it is high time we built venues in Delhi and Calcutta, not only for western music, but also Indian music. It doesn't matter which party is in power; don't you think the capital of India should have a concert hall?”

“My tastes are Viennese.”

“The private sector is growing so incredibly in India, in every city you have industries for whom building a concert hall would be nothing financially. But they just don't do it.”

“Some musical directors have more chutzpah. They pick up the phone and talk people into giving. I prefer to call and say 'thank you' after the money has been contributed.”

“My parents had chosen the medical profession for me. I even studied a few semesters at St Xavier's College, but at the back of my mind, I always wanted to be a musician like my father.”

“I always look at the work of fashion designers as if they were art.”

“I miss the standard of the New York Philharmonic's playing very much. It has certainly been a high point in my life.”