If they say they don't like the way I play Beethoven, then I can swallow that, and maybe they're right. But if they don't like what I've written, then it's about me.
Stephen HoughRead
There must be so many people who have various artistic talents that, for whatever reason, just have no way of expressing them. Either they have no support from their family or they live in a part of the world, maybe they've never heard a piano or seen a piano.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Many talented individuals lack the opportunity or support to express their artistic abilities.
Stephen Hough's quote highlights the unfortunate reality that numerous people possess artistic talents but may never have the means, environment, or support to nurture and showcase these gifts. This emphasizes the importance of providing opportunities and resources for individuals to explore and express their creativity, regardless of their circumstances or background.
Themes
Artistic TalentExpressionSupportCreativityOpportunity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of arts education in schools.
More from Stephen Hough
All quotes →Unlike sport, music is not about winning or keeping fit or promoting your town or school; it's about celebrating, to a level approaching ecstasy, the deepest human longings.
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Life is an incurable disease leading to death, but it's also an unrequested gift, which, if we can manage to keep giving it away to others, can keep giving back everything to us.
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All things of beauty can speak to us of God, and I'm very happy to listen to and be inspired by people of every religious background.
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Live in the present moment. The past and future are nonexistent. Only the present can be grasped or, better, embraced.
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In Britten or Berg, there's a tension between the sweet and the sour, between the familiar and the unfamiliar, the tonal and the atonal, the happy and the sad. That, to me, is what all western art is about - that tension. It's why we want to say anything at all.
Stephen HoughRead
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