Things can fall apart, or threaten to, for many reasons, and then theres got to be a leap of faith. Ultimately, when youre at the edge, you have to go forward or backward if you go forward, you have to jump together. – Yo-Yo Ma
I learn something not because I have to, but because I really want to. Thats the same view I have for performing. Im performing because I really want to, not because I have to bring bread back home. – Yo-Yo Ma
I love grocery shopping when Im home. Thats what makes me feel totally normal. I love both the idea of home as in being with my family and friends, and also the idea of exploration. I think those two are probably my great interests. – 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
Our destiny often looks like a fruit-tree in winter. Who would think from its pitiable aspect that those rigid boughs, those rough twigs could next spring again be green, bloom, and even bear fruit? Yet we hope it, we know it. – Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Wilhelm Meister’s Travels, translated from German