I respect the Indian government for the fact that there are no settlements in Kashmir.
— Zubin Mehta
Even in music concerts in Mumbai and different parts of the world, seats are reserved for sponsors.
I love the creativity of New York, but I don't enjoy the city - I don't like living here.
In Bombay, we have a fine concert hall. I think it is high time we built venues in Delhi and Calcutta, not only for western music, but also Indian music. It doesn't matter which party is in power; don't you think the capital of India should have a concert hall?
Indian hotels are doing well globally because they understand hospitality.
I've known Pinchas Zukerman since he was a teenager.
I am an Indian, so I do yoga.
My temples are only in India. When I am in India, I go to the religious ceremonies.
If you can sing together, you can live together.
I am always hearing from Israelis, 'Oh, CNN is anti-Israel,' or 'BBC is against us.' But no, they are reporting facts.
I am often critical of Israel's policies when in the country, but then feel defensive of them when overseas.
I've never said, 'I live for art.'
New York is really the place to be; to go to New York, you're going to the center of the world, the lion's den.
I'm really not a party person. I'm in the business of working with 100 people every day, so I don't revel in meeting a roomful of people in my leisure time.
I'm a pucca Indian. Bombay is my home.
Go to the young conductors who are not making it, and you will hear how we shouldn't push ourselves or sell ourselves, how they don't have the right connections and the right opportunities. Well, you can be sure they've had the opportunities.
My parents had chosen the medical profession for me. I even studied a few semesters at St Xavier's College, but at the back of my mind, I always wanted to be a musician like my father.
Most Arab Israelis speak Hebrew, but not the other way around. It's about time that changed.
The 'New York Times' reviews of my work have been evenly divided - favourable and unfavourable.
American musicians are very giving - they have the highest standard in the world - but they are also very demanding in their conditions.
There are certainly talented instrumentalists coming from India. I see them performing all over the world.
Though there is such a rich tradition of culture and arts, I have never been invited to perform at a concert in South India.
I knew at university that medicine was just not for me. I saved many lives by not being a doctor!
My family and relatives alone could fill Shanmukhananda Hall in Bombay.
One learns how to change gears within a concert repertoire.
In truth, I became a conductor because deep down I wanted to conduct Brahms's four symphonies and Richard Strauss's tone poems.
As soon as, say, Saddam Hussein started bombing Israel with Scuds, everyone was like, 'Poor Israel.' But when Israel retaliates - and most of the time they then win - people turn against them.
There are three orchestras in Munich, all world-quality, in a city of one million. Yet every hall is full.
My life is so full of sacrifices.
The New York Philharmonic is a tremendous opportunity, a great orchestra.
There was an opinion expressed in the newspapers that, after 20 years, maybe the Israel Philharmonic should consider asking me to leave. I thought they might have a point, so I asked my orchestra. They told me overwhelmingly that they wanted me to stay.
I'm a Persian Jew, and we don't speak Hebrew.
I always look at the work of fashion designers as if they were art.
I feel growing up in Mumbai is an advantage, as we grow up speaking so many languages that when we go abroad, it becomes easier to learn new languages.
There is a school in Israel called Hand in Hand which I support. There Arab and Jewish students study together on a daily basis.
Critics do their job, and I take their criticism seriously.
The private sector is growing so incredibly in India, in every city you have industries for whom building a concert hall would be nothing financially. But they just don't do it.
I have been to Kashmir many times, especially with my family, in the '70s.
My father was a trained accountant, a BCom from Sydenham College and a self-taught violinist. In the 1920s, when he was in his teens, he heard a great violinist, Jascha Heifetz, and he was so inspired listening to him that he bought himself a violin, and with a little help from an Italian teacher, he learned to play it.
All these people who scream about Kashmir being an armed camp are in fact responsible for keeping it that way.
I love to conduct opera.
I endeavor that all orchestras I conduct sound Central European.
We are so indebted to our ancestors, musically speaking, that they have left us 400 years of music.
Why does Israel always have to suffer for others to feel bad for it?
I have a few homes, and Los Angeles is certainly one of them.
I feel that the critic and music director should have such a good relationship they can pick up the phone and call each other any time.
After conducting Wagner, Beethoven's triple concerto is like taking an Alka Seltzer.
I love India.
I would convert to Judaism if the operation didn't hurt so much.
If North American musicians would only know how uncomfortable life is for European musicians.
