“I often conduct an orchestra in my sleep; my orchestras are so huge that the back desks of the violas vanish into the horizon. And everything is so wonderful.”

“Business was so bad the other night the orchestra was playing "Tea for One."”

“To lead the orchestra, you have to turn your back on the crowd.”

“To lead an orchestra, you must turn your back on the crowd”

“I actually don't like playing the piano or conducting the orchestra. There is always an exchange of energies, which is not even. It's one against 80.”

“I regret they don't have symphony orchestras all over the world so I could see Burma and Samarkand.”

“Except for the violin pieces and a few of my orchestra pieces, all of my works from the Passacaglia on relate to the death of my mother.”

“On finishing early at a rehearsal the London Symphony Orchestra leader Hugh Maguire said to Monteux: "Oh Maitre it is so nice to finish early. My wife will be so surprised." Monteux replied: "Be careful. You might be surprised!"”

“Orchestras have often been used to conjure up the natural world: Swans, sharks, trout, but not, as far as I know, the often maligned jellyfish.”

“Don’t come before the orchestra is you have not mastered the score; don’t practise or learn the score ‘on the orchestra”