The role of the musician is to go from concept to full execution. Put another way, its to go from understanding the content of something to really learning how to communicate it and make sure its well-received and lives in somebody else. – Yo-Yo Ma

The thing that Ive always been slightly frustrated with, was that the idea of a CD is kind of confined to a material possession that you can put on a shelf. And the idea of music, for me, is always about both the communication and the sharing of content. And so the interactive part is missing. – Yo-Yo Ma
My teacher, my great cello teacher Leonard Rose, was such a great cellist, and nurturing man, very patient. But I grew up not only admiring him, but obviously Casals, Rostrotovich, Jacqueline du Pre, and many others, including many of my peers and contemporaries. – Yo-Yo Ma
Hopefully with each thing that you do youre learning something, youre growing, and youre pushing yourself a little harder in some way or another. So I think youd be in real trouble if each new thing that you create didnt feel like Oh, wow. I feel like Im doing something a little different this time. – Rian Johnson