When you realize that everything is staged, then nothing is staged.

The music works by itself, but you can change the perception of it by the way you dress, the way you move, the things you say, the things you don't say. And when you realize that everything is staged, then nothing is staged. There's a kind of liberation to that.

Why does the world need a Piano Day? For many reasons. But mostly, because it doesn't hurt to celebrate the piano and everything around it: performers, composers, piano builders, tuners, movers and most important, the listener.

When I make a fool out of myself or when I don't take myself seriously, I'm in a comfortable spot where I don't need to be reasonable. There's no reason to be reasonable. This is what I want to do and where I have full control. I determine what I want to do.

There's a narrow bit which is still possible, which is left from all of the ones you can't do right now, and then you make the best out of that. You wouldn't have done that by yourself at any other moment of time.

The only thing I try to watch carefully is that I never lose the love for the instrument. That's also why I decided against a professional piano career when I was younger.

The music I do in live performances is made for a specific situation. I know that people are sitting down and shutting up and they're with me for 90 minutes. They're totally with me. Whatever I do, I know they have my attention and they follow my pace.

You can learn to write. But what you write is something that depends on your taste and on your vision or whatever. Also, of course, the music I listened to inspired my idea of music. When people ask me Where's your inspiration? Where does it come from? I have no idea. Music is about music. Not about life and love.