Edwin Land Quotes

I wanted to play my violin and have my musical expression through the instrument. But then I was really young when I had my first opportunity to conduct.

At a rehearsal I let the orchestra play as they like. At the concert I make them play as I like.

I know that John Adams has had a very hard time directing French ensembles.

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.

I have this weird musical thing I do: I play violin, and I even went on tour with Tim Robbins. We did a bunch of Canadian cities, and then went down to the States, and then we ended up in Japan.

When you play a violin piece, you are a storyteller, and you're telling a story.

I'm having a blast being the music director at the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. It certainly is challenging for me, but I love challenges.

I always imagined that to bring an orchestra to play together is not enough for a conductor.

On the other hand, when I give it closer thought, I realize I'm not enough of a dictator to conduct an orchestra because it requires a pretty awful person. When you read these biographies of famous conductors, they are all awful people who fail in their private relationships.

With Dream Theater, every creative aspect of the group went through me. I oversaw it all from top to bottom.

I don't walk on stage unless I'm playing with a orchestra. But when I play a recital, I'm sort of on a scooter, and I just scoot very quickly on stage, and they're saying, wow, look at this. He's so fast.

I don't really enjoy singing lead.

I'm very involved in the production of my songs. I know what I like and what I don't like.

Directors are the fulcrum of the movie. They guide us well, not merely rein actors in. Whenever we stray, they bring us back on track.

I never like to conduct, quite honestly, because you have to be a bit of a dictator and it's exhausting.

The conductor is a peculiar person. He turns his back on his friends in the audience, shakes a stick at his players in the orchestra, and then wonders why nobody loves him.

Did you play? It sounded very good.

Actors are like kids, they need to play a little bit. And that's the nature of their job, they need to shake off some energy and then you as the director get them back on track. When you do loosen up the reins, you get some amazing things, but you have to wring out the performances for every last good drop.

I wouldn't mind doing Playboy again. But only if I had creative control.

I think that's the job of a director really, to sort of funnel all the creativity into one centralized point of being.

An audience is an abstraction; it has no taste. It must depend on the only person who has (pardon, should have), the conductor.

Becoming artistic directors is an enormous responsibility and not one that we take lightly.

Playing a violin is, after all, only scraping a cat's entrails with horsehair.

Sometimes when I'm directing, the stage manager will have a good idea and that's okay with me.

I'm very eclectic in what I like and what I listen to. But my favorite musical ever is "The Sound of Music." That was actually one that inspired me to sing.