Joshua Bell Quotes

I like to think I don't make music for ignorant people.

Music - that's been my education. There's not a day that goes by that I take it for granted.

American audiences are great. They get what I am doing, but as my band will tell you, nowhere tops the Irish audience. They are just brilliant. They are very open, but the Americans and Spanish come a close second.

My mother and dad loved music, were very much into music.

Someone who knows only music, understands nothing about it.

You see, that is it with music, you never stop learning.

I don't really know that I'm aware of a lot of the inspiration and influence that I'm under, because I didn't have an extensive musically educational upbringing.

Musicians and non-musicians alike are priding themselves on the width and breadth of their musical interests, which I think is to be encouraged.

I believe that classical music comes through listening and practice, and it can be fun both for the singer or performer and the listener or audience, as long as the performer is taught to recognise the pulse of the audience.

Western music is alien to my ears.

I have huge respect for the musical aptitude and intellect of listeners in India. They appreciate genuine, quality music.

Mozart, Beethoven - how can you not want to share them with everyone and anyone? This stuff is of as great importance as the food we eat and the air we breathe.

The more I come to understand music, the more I feel like a numbskull because there is always more to learn. The more I do it, the more I'm humbled. I'm just always trying to get better at it. I pick up a few tricks along the way.

Either your understanding of the meaning of music is there from the beginning or it is not.

People have taught me not to look for intelligence in rockmusic.

It was really strange for me when I started to play concerts in America where the audiences were all sitting down.

I love going into a dive where they have no idea who I am or haven't heard my music and try to win them over.

In regard to music, I just think that it's always best to have an attitude of being a perpetual student and always look to learn something new about music, because there's always something new to learn.

I used to think that, given enough goodwill, anybody would be able to 'get' any music, no matter how distant the culture from which it came. And then I heard Chinese opera.

He learned through the way that my father and I felt about his songs, his country songs, that they were great songs. And then he went out and sang them for the audiences that we found, and he found a tremendous reaction to that.

I never could get into The Chambers Brothers. They make good records, but I never could get behind it.

More people are listening to opera, and I'm happy - everybody must be given that opportunity.

I really don't know anything about music, and it's no great experience for me. But I do think that music has a purifying element.

I was really fortunate growing up to have a broad musical education. My parents listened to all kinds of music, rock, soul, Motown, jazz, Frank Sinatra, everything.

The crowd can be a little different in some places. For example, in Europe, people tend to be very respectful. They try not to make too much noise at inappropriate times. In other countries, people can be very still. Sometimes I'm not sure if a crowd is into it until the end, when they usually want me to do something crazy for the encore.