Yo-Yo Ma Quotes

"Good things happen when you meet strangers."

"I realized late in life that my twin passions are music and people."

"I think one of the great things about being a musician is that you never stop learning."

"Music is powered by ideas. If you don't have clarity of ideas, you're just communicating sheer sound."

"With every year of playing, you want to relax one more muscle. Why? Because the more tense you are, the less you can hear."

"You go through phases. You have to reinvent reasons for playing, and one year's answer might not do for another."

"There's a part of me that's always charging ahead. I'm the curious kid, always going to the edge."

"When we have a good balance between thinking and feeling... our actions and lives are always the richer for it."

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

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

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

"As a musician I'm kind of nomadic, Waldo-like. I show up in different places, and I'm witness to unbelievable things."

"Once something is memorable, it's living and you're using it. That to me is the foundation of a creative society."

"My involvement in the political arena is to make sure there's a place for culture."

"After reaching 50, I began to wonder what the root of life is."

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

"The tango is really a combination of many cultures, though it eventually became the national music of Argentina."

"We may be coming to a new golden age of instrument making."

"People will ask, 'Are you famous?' And I always answer, 'My mother thinks so.'"