Top 45 Quotes & Sayings by James Levine

As major orchestras around the world are gripped in various kinds of crises and upheaval, we need to be sure that we are bringing up this new generation.

And, over the last thirty years we have seen men's participation in both housework and childcare has increased and women's have stayed at about the same.

Where my tastes in music are concerned, I'm a real maximalist.

You try on purpose to get players with different qualities which will rub off on one another.

At my age, you are naturally inclined towards teaching.

My hunch is that probably men are doing more both outside the home and inside the home.

Working mothers do an hour more per day than working fathers do and working mothers do on average an hour more per day with the kids than working fathers do.

What's interesting is that both men and women are struggling with this issue in remarkably similar percentages, but the big difference is that women tend to talk about this when men keep it silent.

It wasn't that I ever knew I'd be at the Met for 20 years, or 30 years, or 40 years, or anything like that.

Women tend to have recognition and peer group support - recognition from friends and family that this has to be a big issue in their lives. They're more comfortable expressing the need for support and receiving it.

I have a big problem with conductors who gesture a lot.

If you factor in not just who's doing what at home, but how much more time working fathers are spending on work outside the home, on average they spend two hours more per day outside the home.

Great cataclysmic things can go by and neither the orchestra nor the conductor are under the delusion that whether they make this or that gesture is going to be the deciding factor in how it comes out.

Art has never been a popularity contest.

The invisible dilemma is that men face the very real problem that they don't feel comfortable bringing these issues up and they tend not to be acknowledged at work.

But the important thing is to lie down and fall asleep. That little nap means you wake up fresh again and can continue.

And so, little by little, I gradually divested myself of pretty nearly all of the guest conducting I used to do, because I was at the same time working in the places like the Met, where I could work in this sort of depth.

I can imagine wanting to work with this ensemble and this company always.

Everybody blames the culture without taking responsibility.

Second, if you're the boss, just because they don't ask doesn't mean your employees don't have needs.

I think this orchestra's strengths involve drama and voice.

More and more couples are having this negotiation or discussion, but I'm still amazed at the number who aren't and where the cultural norm sort of kicks in and they just assume that mom's got to be the one who stays home, not dad.

Employee fathers need to step up to the plate and put their family needs on the table.

So, the total number of hours spent on the stuff you have to do to take care of a family, working and caring for stuff at home, the total number of hours is actually about the same for mothers and fathers.

There is no relationship between the gestures and what an orchestra will do.

It was just that we had this phenomenal honeymoon relationship that just kept on going.

When they are performing in front of the public, they ought to have a sensation that's relatively easy, if the technical and the interpretive work was done before.

I thought I'd write one book and the world would change overnight.

It's just that, when the orchestra look at me, I want them to see a completely involved person who reflects what we rehearsed, and whose function is to make it possible for them to do it.

They've really got to recognize that all of us bring some of our family issues to work and our work home.

It has to be able to play at the maximum expression and communication in every style, and the only way you can do that is - like Verdi said - working with a file, every day, little by little, until the orchestra's collective qualities emerge.

We're in the midst of an evolution, not a revolution.

A lot of people get impatient with the pace of change.

Most people treat the office manual the way they treat a software manual. They never look at it.

We do not seem to be finding tomorrow's Toscas.

I was lucky that I met the right mentors and teachers at the right moment.

I grew up in an era where an orchestra was like a treasure chest.

We found that when people put this issue on the table, it turns out that men acknowledge the issue, and employers and employees can work out solutions just as working mothers do.

It wasn't that I ever knew I'd be at the Met for 20 years, or 30 years, or 40 years, or anything like that

Fate is a misplaced retreat. Many people rationalize an unexplained event as fate and shrug their shoulders when it occurs. But that is not what fate is. The world operates as a series of circles that are invisible, for they extend to the upper air. Fate is where these circles cut to earth. Since we cannot see them, do not know their content, and have no sense of their width, it is impossible to predict when these cuts will slice into our reality. When this happens, we call it fate. Fate is not a chance event but one that is inevitable, we are simply blind to its nature and time.

I thought I'd write one book and the world would change overnight

Its just that, when the orchestra look at me, I want them to see a completely involved person who reflects what we rehearsed, and whose function is to make it possible for them to do it.

The Steinway pianos of today are the finest I have ever played.

I was lucky that I met the right mentors and teachers at the right moment

My hunch is that probably men are doing more both outside the home and inside the home