106 Quotes by Esa-Pekka Salonen

There is such a suspicion in today's world of people who do more than one thing, who aren't specialized.

The Northern idea of form is more of a process. The various units of the form overlap. You can't tell where some things stop and new things start. This is typical of Sibelius.

There is more openness in LA to possibilities than on the East Coast of America. There is a pioneering spirit there that stems from the reason people went out there in the first place-to find something new.

As we watch TV or films, there are no organic transitions, only edits. The idea of A becoming B, rather than A jumping to B, has become foreign.

Once you get over the first hill, there is always a new, higher one lurking, of course.

I discovered that the people of the North are different and there's no way you can make a person from the North similar to a Southerner. They're two different worlds.

In Europe, there is so much tradition, and everyone has established ideas as to what art should be and what it has always been.

Anyone who composes and conducts at the same time is immediately suspect, because he must be faking one or the other.

I'm still disturbed if a chord isn't together, but your priorities change as you get older.