Mstislav Rostropovich

When I started learning the cello, I fell in love with the instrument because it seemed like a voice - my voice.

The war years were the most difficult time of my life. There was real famine in Moscow. The water froze inside the houses. There was no heat.

Explain to me, please, why in our literature and art so often people absolutely incompetent in this field have the final word.

I'd date someone younger or older; age doesn't matter to me. Or looks, really - it's all about maturity.

Marriage can be work, it can be difficult, it can be hard, but I think working through those times makes you stronger as a couple and as a unit.

Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.