165 Quotes by Joshua Bell

I want to do everything. That’s my problem.

Actors want to do Shakespeare again and again, or want to do Hamlet. When you hear one guy do Hamlet and another guy do it, it’s going to be a whole different experience.

Although I hardly ever turn on the TV set unless it’s football season, I do watch a lot of TV on my iPad – perfect for long airplane journeys.

I open up my violin case every day, and have one of the great creations. It is very inspiring. It makes you want to practice. How can you open up a case and look at a violin that was made in 1713 by one of the greatest artists in history and then say, “No, I don’t feel like practicing today.”

There are some days I take my violin out and it feels dreadful, like nothing is responding, and I want to sell it and get rid of it. And the next day suddenly the skies open up and the sound is glorious again. So it’s like a relationship: There are good days and bad days.

I don’t sleep with a violin in my bed, but there is something very magical about the instrument. You open up the case; it’s a masterpiece, it’s gorgeous, the varnish is still there from 300 years ago. People who know violins, they look at it and it’s almost like a face.

I was lucky enough to have parents who started me on music very early, but most kids don’t get that kind of exposure.

I don’t want to portray myself as a daredevil. I’m not at all.

Every orchestra is different. Sometimes, you’re blown away by a particular musician. If I’m playing the Brahms concerto, it’s crucial to have a great oboe player, because we work in tandem.