Jascha Heifetz Quotes

#1. Can you appreciate music without playing it? Yes, you can. You can appreciate baseball without playing it. Many people attend a football game merely for the crowd, the excitement, the color.

Jascha Heifetz

#2. The discipline of practice every day is essential. When I skip a day, I notice a difference in my playing. After two days, the critics notice, and after three days, so does the audience.

Jascha Heifetz

#3. If the Almighty himself played the violin, the credits would still read 'Rubinstein, God, and Piatigorsky', in that order.

Jascha Heifetz

#4. No matter what side of an argument you're on, you always find some people on your side that wish you were on the other side.

Jascha Heifetz

#5. He once told a reporter he wanted his obituary to be short - "just make it born in Russia, first lesson at 3, debut at 7, debut in America in 1917".

Jascha Heifetz

#6. Criticism does not disturb me, for I am my own severest critic. Always in my playing I strive to surpass myself, and it is this constant struggle that makes music fascinating to me.

Jascha Heifetz

#7. If I don't practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it.

Jascha Heifetz

#8. Practice like it means everything in the world to you. Perform like you don't give a damn.

Jascha Heifetz

#9. I occasionally play works by contemporary composers and for two reasons. First to discourage the composer from writing any more and secondly to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven.

Jascha Heifetz

#10. When people come to play music as they do to play bridge, civilization will have taken the longest stride forward since the beginning of time.

Jascha Heifetz

#11. There is no top. There are always further heights to reach.

Jascha Heifetz

#12. I have discovered three things which know no geographical borders - classical music, American jazz, and applause as the sign of the public's favor.

Jascha Heifetz