Joshua Bell Quotes

Quotes about:

• The best way to refine an interpretation is by getting out and performing.

  Joshua Bell

  Way, Interpretation, Performing

  FaceBook post by Joshua Bell from Apr 15, 2015

  46 Copy quote

• When you play a violin piece, you are a storyteller, and you're telling a story.

  Joshua Bell

  Play, Stories, Pieces

  FaceBook post by Joshua Bell from Apr 08, 2015

  30 Copy quote

• I think if there's ever been a time we need music more, it's now. For our kids, it teaches you to take time, to listen, to work together, to listen to other people, and to use your brain. That's why classical music doesn't work when you throw it at people in a subway platform while they're rushing to work. Classical music is something that needs to be contemplated, you have to be completely present with an active mind that's working. It's not background music.

  Joshua Bell

  Kids, Thinking, People

  4 Copy quote

• There are some days I take my violin out and it feels dreadful, like nothing is responding, and I want to sell it and get rid of it. And the next day suddenly the skies open up and the sound is glorious again. So it's like a relationship: There are good days and bad days.

  Joshua Bell

  Good Day, Bad Day, Sky

  "Joshua Bell’s Virtuoso Reality". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. May/June 2011.

  14 Copy quote

• I hope I will always have the chance to play the violin.

  Joshua Bell

  Play, Violin, Chance

  33 Copy quote

• You don't have to have lots of love affairs to know what love is.

  Joshua Bell

  Love Is, Affair, Love Affair

  7 Copy quote

• I open up my violin case every day, and have one of the great creations. It is very inspiring. It makes you want to practice. How can you open up a case and look at a violin that was made in 1713 by one of the greatest artists in history and then say, "No, I don't feel like practicing today."

  Joshua Bell

  Artist, Practice, Looks

  "Joshua Bell’s Virtuoso Reality". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. May/June 2011.

  5 Copy quote

• Kids need to be structured in some way, but you don't want to force something down their throats that they have no interest in.

  Joshua Bell

  Kids, Balance, Needs

  "Joshua Bell’s Virtuoso Reality". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. May/June 2011.

  7 Copy quote

• You only live once, so I try to say yes to everything.

  Joshua Bell

  Trying, You Only Live Once

  11 Copy quote

• There are days that I get neurotic with the instrument [violin]. Every little adjustment will change the balance for good or for bad. It's kind of a miracle, the way the whole thing works as an acoustical whole, so perfectly balanced that any little thing will - which also means the weather, the humidity.

  Joshua Bell

  Miracle, Balance, Littles

  "Joshua Bell’s Virtuoso Reality". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. May/June 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• I don't listen to a lot of music when I have my free time. But I'll go to a jazz club and have a drink and listen to a good jazz musician. Or sometimes in the morning, if I want to put myself in a good mood, I'll put on some Latin music.

  Joshua Bell

  Morning, Latin, Musician

  "Joshua Bell’s Virtuoso Reality". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. May 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• There are some great teachers who have had great students, but they themselves can't play a note. I don't understand it, because the most I learned from my teacher was just hearing him play.

  Joshua Bell

  Teacher, Play, Hearing

  "Joshua Bell’s Virtuoso Reality". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. May/June 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• Music plays a huge role in the movie. The music in Star Wars, I can't imagine what the movie would have been like without it. It made the film.

  Joshua Bell

  Stars, War, Play

  "Joshua Bell’s Virtuoso Reality". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. May/June 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• We live in the least ugly time in history. If you look at back when Beethoven was writing, half the kids were dying, mothers were dying at childbirth, there were more wars going on then than there are now. People wrote the most beautiful things during the ugliest times.

  Joshua Bell

  Beautiful, Mother, War

  "Joshua Bell’s Virtuoso Reality". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. May/June 2011.

  5 Copy quote

• Being a classical musician, you're doing many things anyway. One day you're doing Bach concerto and the next you're doing some avant-garde thing. It's just another hat that I'm allowed to wear.

  Joshua Bell

  One Day, Musician, Classical Music

  5 Copy quote

• I don't sleep with a violin in my bed, but there is something very magical about the instrument. You open up the case; it's a masterpiece, it's gorgeous, the varnish is still there from 300 years ago. People who know violins, they look at it and it's almost like a face.

  Joshua Bell

  Sleep, Years, People

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  9 Copy quote

• I was lucky enough to have parents who started me on music very early, but most kids don't get that kind of exposure.

  Joshua Bell

  Kids, Parent, Lucky

  4 Copy quote

• If you mess up the tiniest little thing in the Beethoven concerto, or the phrasing isn't just exactly perfectly executed, Beethoven brings out the worst in the best violinist. You almost never hear a satisfying performance, because it doesn't play itself.

  Joshua Bell

  Play, Littles, Little Things

  "Joshua Bell’s Virtuoso Reality". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. May/June 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• I don't want to portray myself as a daredevil. I'm not at all.

  Joshua Bell

  Want, Daredevil

  52 Copy quote

• Social media puts us inside our phones and our computers and our headphones, and we're not connecting so much with our outside environment. Even when people go to the Grand Canyon they're more concerned about the selfies than actually looking at the canyon. I see it with my own kids - the addiction to needing things fast, never pausing to just see what's around us and connect with our fellow human beings in real time.

  Joshua Bell

  Real, Kids, People

  4 Copy quote

• So much of performing is a mind game.

  Joshua Bell

  Games, Mind, Mind Games

  4 Copy quote

• There's nothing more frustrating than seeing a conductor say, 'Play softer,' as they're waving their hands in huge gestures.

  Joshua Bell

  Hands, Play, Gestures

  "Classical 'Rock Star' Joshua Bell Takes On Conducting". "Talk of the Nation" with Neal Conan, www.npr.org. April 24, 2012.

  7 Copy quote

• I always find it funny when people say, "I don't really like classical music" or "it doesn't do anything for me." I tell them, "Well, you know, it does. You go to films and you're responding to it, and you've heard it..." It's controlling you! So don't think you're not being affected. It's a great medium for music.

  Joshua Bell

  Thinking, People, Doe

  "Joshua Bell’s Virtuoso Reality". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. May/June 2011.

  6 Copy quote

• Conducting is a strange thing to teach.

  Joshua Bell

  Strange, Conducting, Teach

  7 Copy quote

• At a music hall, I'll get upset if someone coughs or if someone's cellphone goes off.

  Joshua Bell

  Upset, Halls, Music Hall

  4 Copy quote

Page 1 of 2

← Prev

1

2

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin