Stephen Hough Quotes

Artists like Bach and Beethoven erected churches and temples on the heights. I only wanted... to build dwellings for men in which they might feel happy and at home.

For me, music, in the truest sense of the word, is about making people happy.

It is wonderful to see how happy all my friends in the LA Philharmonic are in their new home.

Well, I don't know any piece by heart, but Mozart goes something like this... What do you think?

My upbringing made me think that real legitimate music is written, not heard.

I've seen a fair bit of the States and the rest of the world, and I'm convinced that there's nowhere I'd be happier, there's nowhere I'm missing out on because I'm in N.Y.

We want to take good tidings home to our people, that they may sleep in peace.

Beethoven's symphonies are not 'relaxing.' They are the most exciting things that have ever been created by a human being.

The hardest of all the arts to speak of is music, because music has no meaning to speak of.

Playing the Beethoven symphonies, for example, is a consummate experience for a musician because Beethoven speaks so directly to who we are as people.

I cannot imagine being happy anywhere else in the world but in Cape Town - South Africa in general, but Cape Town in particular.

I hold all of the songs that I have had the pleasure of recording and performing in high regard.

I'm not a culture snob. So while, of course, I think the Mozart 'Requiem' or, say, Beethoven's 'Ninth' are some of the greatest works of art in the history of humankind, that's not to say the Beatles or Queen or Simon and Garfunkel aren't brilliant, beautiful, important works of art that should be sung without a sense of irony.

Singing and dancing is not just for the cast of 'Glee'. We can wake up doing both and have it be a natural expression of who we are.

Is it true that we must accept the music of another race as being that which is American? Have not the white Americans sufficient individuality to develop a characteristic style of composition.

Once I discovered music and that you don't need to just use words but can add a growl to the melody, that releases so much more. I never want to make music for any other reason.

Classical music is for listening but rock and roll is to have fun with.

Why a musician loves playing jazz or classical music or what makes them happy, and why an artist likes to paint - it's so hard to actually put into words what that feeling is of joy that we get, but that is what I get: a feeling of joy when the camera is rolling, even if I'm doing something that is not joyous.

We all want to be loved. We all want to feel accepted. We all want to feel content. And life is hard.

Melody was banned from music by the composers of the avant-garde. I was unique among them in always using and writing melody and so I think this is why I've shared my music, why they can have also pleasure, not only an interesting structure.

I sang 'Nessun Dorma' twice with Pavarotti, and he told me he'd heard 'Smoke' about five or six times, and every time was different. He was so jealous because if he deviated one jot from the traditional interpretation of the famous arias, he'd be crucified. We have the freedom.

We wanted to make music to fit with the way we live and celebrate life.

I love just being in Canberra and being with my family, being with my friends.

If I'm happy and joyous, which I have been a lot in my life, thankfully, I'm usually not at the piano writing about it.

You have to have a sound that inspires you to play because, if not, you won't be able to make the sound you have work. You won't be able to make magic with it if you're not happy with it, so it's important that you at least please yourself to the level where you can just relax and be an artist.