Artur Schnabel Quotes

I have no nerves at all about singing or playing stuff... and if I can have a cup of tea nearby, then I'm very much at home.

The piano is the instrument I can play the most.

I don't think what people realize is I've been through years and years and years of training - piano, dance, vocal lessons.

When you sit down and see someone play at a piano, you don't think, 'Wow - what a fantastic machine.'

One of the features of being a piano player is playing as an accompanist for other people.

I play a very streamlined piano.

The pedal is the soul of the piano.

People have often said to me, 'You're so relaxed when you play.' Relaxed my elbow. It's practice.

You can tell whether a person plays well or not by the way he carries the instrument, whether it means something to him or not.

I need to be able to play the music, and so I don't like to have intimidation be part of it.

No matter how much you sit there twiddling, going, 'We're all doomed', at the end of the day people will always want to hear you play Creep. Get over it.

Tea is the only simple pleasure left to us.

Songs like "Spirit Carries On" really gets the audience moved and on the same page. It's challenging and all so much fun to play.

Any musician who says he is playing better either on tea, the needle, or when he is juiced, is a plain, straight liar. When I get too much to drink, I can't even finger well, let alone play decent ideas. You can miss the most important years of your life, the years of possible creation.

If you're going to play it out of tune, then play it out of tune properly.

I very rarely play the piano at home. Deliberately, so that when I do play it, I love it.

What I always look for is someone that really knew how to lean up against a bar, get a drink, sit on a barstool. When people are in bars they're relaxed. No real right angles - it's slow moves, it's slow conversations. You can tell a loud joke, but everyone's very relaxed. I never would pick somebody nervous or twitchy. If I found guys with beards, I'd ask them, don't trim the edges, don't go in and manicure yourself up. I always look for people that look like they're comfortable in their own skin, that wouldn't feel like it was the first time they were ever in a bar.

When I play for the people, every time I play for my audience they are hypnotized, seen. These guys know the potential of the music.

I think that if you have to work very hard at dressing up and it makes you nervous or uptight, then you won't look very well because you won't be comfortable. I think it's much better to be comfortable and happy than well dressed.

You can't be a band and not play, and playing is so invigorating. It breathes life into you. So does creating something out of nothing.

Now, I was a fan of the simple pleasures in life: grilled cheese sandwiches without black flecks on the crust, jeans that didn't pinch the better parts of me, an inch of vodka, ten to twelve hours of sleep. - Cole St Clair, Forever.

The more you prepare beforehand, the more relaxed and creative and effective you’ll be when it counts.

I'm comfortable in the way I play and comfortable in who I am.

I feel more confident in being able to be funny if I'm comfortable with the people I'm around. When you're friends with them, it just makes it all the better. Plus, shooting a movie, you're sitting on your ass for hours at a time, so if you have somebody there to mess around with and have fun, then it's great.