My future is in my past and my past is my present. I must now make the present my future.
Vladimir HorowitzRead
Always there should be a little mistake here and there - I am for it. The people who don't do mistakes are cold like ice. It takes risk to make a mistake. If you don't take risk, you are boring.
Interpretation
Embracing mistakes is necessary for growth and creativity.
Vladimir Horowitz highlights the value of making mistakes as a fundamental part of being human. He suggests that those who avoid risks and mistakes may lack warmth and vibrancy, while those who are willing to take chances and make errors are more engaging and lively.
In practice
During a motivational speech to encourage students to embrace their failures.
My future is in my past and my past is my present. I must now make the present my future.
I may play the same program from one recital to the next, but I will play it differently, and because it is always different, it is always new.
I must tell you I take terrible risks. Because my playing is very clear, when I make a mistake you hear it. If you want me to play only the notes without any specific dynamics, I will never make one mistake. Never be afraid to dare.
The score is not a bible, and I am never afraid to dare. The music is behind those dots.
You have to open the music, so to speak, and see what's behind the notes because the notes are the same whether it is the music of Bach or someone else.
For me, the intellect is always the guide but not the goal of the performance. Three things have to be coordinated, and not one must stick out. Not too much intellect because it can become scholastic. Not too much heart because it can become schmaltz. Not too much technique because you become a mechanic.
When you have great joy, you will become Buddhas!
I'm not patient - and I'm getting more impatient as I get older - but I am disciplined about writing, and I want that on my tombstone: 'He wasn't patient, but he was disciplined.'
We're receiving information from all the planes of our consciousness all the time, but we don't acknowledge their existence; we treat the information as static, as noise.
But I was too restless to watch long; I'm too Occidental for a long vigil. I could work at a problem for years, but to wait inactive for twenty-four hours - that's another matter.
Making steel may be compared to making a chappati. To make a good chappati, even a golden pin will not work unless the dough is good
So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is not in vain.
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