114 Quotes by Yo-Yo Ma

One of the things I love about music is live performance.

I think anybody who goes away finds you appreciate home more when you return.

As a child, you respond physically, tactically. You're delighted by sound, you're delighted by recognizing something. It's like hide and seek. Is it there? Is it not there? Is it this note? Is it not this note? It's one fantastic game.

One of the most interesting aspects of the film project was collaborating with so many people - directors, filmmakers, and writers - over a five-year period. I learned that there are two components to this.

I think that peace is, in many ways, a precondition of joy.

I think all musicians have at one time or another experienced one physical problem or another. I have had tendinitis a couple of times, so I try to be really careful. It takes patience and persistence to overcome injury.

I remember when I was growing up. My great wish was to understand who I was and how I fit in the world.

Jazz has been such a force in music, that any musician, including classical composers, have been influenced, and obviously performers, also.

My job as a performer is to make sure that whatever happens in a performance lives in somebody else, that it's memorable... If you forget tomorrow what you heard yesterday, there's really not much point in you having been there - or me, for that matter.