JOSHUA BELL

Bach's music is really some of the greatest. I think, in some ways, Bach is the most profound composer of all.

When you play for ticket-holders, you are already validated. I have no sense that I need to be accepted. I'm already accepted.

Music - you need the give and take from the audience, the feeling of attention. It's not about me: it's about the music itself.

My whole life, I've been watching conductors. I was 7 the first time I played with a conductor. Seeing the ones that do it well, it's an amazing thing.

I think, as an artist, it's very important to continue to be challenged and feel challenged all the time.

I think - I'm always interested in reaching people in different ways, not by - not by just standing on a - randomly on a subway platform.

I've always been accused of moving around too much when I play concertos. Sometimes, conductors ask me which of us is leading.

I know how to deal with jet lag, and I know just how much rest I need and when I need to take naps. When you walk on stage, you need your brain working at its highest and most fully-functioning, so it's not always easy, but I sort of figure it out.

I think it's really important to always kind of stretch your boundaries and your limits and get out of your comfort zone. And for me, that's very important.

You're a constant student, as a musician.

What drew me to the violin was mastering the instrument technically, which I'm continuing to do. You want to push boundaries, to not always be in your comfort zone. If you don't, you get stale. So you have to find areas of growth.

As far as I'm concerned, the stakes are always very high. Whether it's playing at the White House or playing for a group in my own house - you know, one of those soirees I play in. Once I start playing, the stakes are somehow higher, in a way, than any of the context.

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

Stradivarius, in particular, was the most amazing craftsman and one of the great artists and scientists that ever lived because he figured out something with the sound and the science of acoustics that we still don't understand it completely.

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

I like blackjack. I like the psychology of poker.

The one thing in my contract that they have backstage for me is bananas. And usually my assistant will go and get me chicken broth.

Being a director or a conductor is a balance of many things. And to do it right is a very difficult tightrope to walk. I've come to the conclusion that there's really no way to be one hundred percent popular as conductor.

We live in a very chaotic world that sometimes we - it just seems like a mess. One of the reasons why we listen to music, and to great classical music in particular, is that everything is in an order and in a place and has a beauty that you see in nature, that you see and that people look for when they look for God.

I do basically what a conductor does with a baton, except I also play along with the orchestra. So I have to juggle the roles of playing the concertmaster; sometimes I drop the violin and wave my arms.

People wrote the most beautiful things during the ugliest times.

I'm happy if my music is being downloaded, whether it's legally or illegally.

So many times, I've seen conductors that, every time they have a thought, they stop the orchestra and say it, and I can see the orchestra rolling their eyes and saying, 'Oh, God, he stopped again.' So there's a technique to rehearsing.

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

So much of performing is a mind game.