Rubinstein Quotes & Sayings

Music is not a hobby, not even a passion with me; music is me. I feel what people get out of me is this outlook on life, which comes out in my music. My music is the last expression of all that. — Arthur Rubinstein

Curiosity is a willing, a proud, an eager confession of ignorance. — S. Leonard Rubinstein

When I sit in Paris in a cafe, surrounded by people, I don't sit casually - I go over a certain sonata in my head and discover new things all the time. — Arthur Rubinstein

Listen! Say less rather than more. If you want to be smart, play stupid! — Helena Rubinstein

A good read is like dancing a tango with the author. You feel the music, give yourself over, move in unison to the music of words. ~ Mark Rubinstein — Mark Rubinstein

I'm not a southern lady, I'm from Pennsylvania and we speak sort of correctly there. People identify me that way and they also easily identify me on the street because of my short stature. I get picked out in many ways and no way is a burden. — Zelda Rubinstein

At breakfast, I might pass a Brahms symphony in my head. Then I am called to the phone, and half an hour later I find it's been going on all the time and I'm in the third movement. — Arthur Rubinstein

A writer's refuge is imagination and the possibilities it provides. — Mark Rubinstein

Human relationships are about communicating. Business jargon should be banished in favor of simple English. Simplicity is a sign of truth and a criterion of beauty. Complexity can be a way of hiding the truth. — Helena Rubinstein

A book being read is a transaction between author & reader, a sharing, giving, taking & a reimagining of the author's offering. — Mark Rubinstein

To be alive, to able to see, to walk ... it's all a miracle. I have adapted the technique of living life from miracle to miracle. — Arthur Rubinstein

In some sense, we're all cavemen - we can't imagine anything more frightening than a ghost or a vampire. But the violation of the principle of causality - that's actually much scarier than a whole herd of ghosts ... or Rubinstein's monsters ... or is that Wallenstein?"
"Frankenstein. — Arkady Strugatsky

The irrepressible spirit that made his playing seem like good conversation is the Rubinstein legacy for pianists, if they can pick up their heads from the keyboard long enough to claim it. — Donal Henahan

Cross over children. All are welcome. All welcome. Go into the Light. There is peace and serenity in the Light. — Zelda Rubinstein

Russians call me German, Germans call me Russian, Jews call me a Christian, Christians a Jew. — Anton Rubinstein

Reading is an apprenticeship to writing — Mark Rubinstein

My father, good or bad, mistakes or no, had a direct line from his heart to the music to the people, to the audience. He played with logic and his own inner truth. — Arthur Rubinstein

...one may easily define two diametrically opposed lessons to be drawn from Jewish history: one holds that the memory of Jewish suffering should lead to a humanistic, universalist approach emphasizing the dangers of intolerance and racism; this is the lesson embodied in the repeated historical reminders that the Jews were brought 'out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,' and that consequently, they were enjoined, 'love ye therefore the stranger, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.'"

"The other lesson seeks revenge for past sufferings, and beckons the Jews, now that they have their state, to hunt with the wolves and - invoking the injunction to remember the Amalekites - seeks to apply rules of exclusiveness laid down in totally different circumstances. — Amnon Rubinstein

Who is your opponent tonight, tonight I am playing against the Black pieces — Akiba Rubinstein

The best antidote to worry, I have always believed, is work and more work ... — Helena Rubinstein

Men are just as vain as women, and sometimes even more so. — Helena Rubinstein

I am more than ever convinced that what we eat today is what we are tomorrow. — Helena Rubinstein

Having a dog or cat will open your heart. Reading a book will open your mind. Having both a pet & a book...absolute heaven. — Mark Rubinstein

Good or evil, it doesn't really matter, so long as your novel's character is interesting. — Mark Rubinstein

[Rubinstein was] a fountain from which music spouted, not a recitalist. — Donal Henahan

It doesn't matter how shaky a woman's hand is. She can still apply makeup. — Helena Rubinstein

A writer has many tools: eyes, ears, nose, sensations, thoughts feelings and imagination. The tools can construct a house of stories. — Mark Rubinstein

If you're a writer, you've chosen art as a way of life. You must accept that some will like your work and others will not. It's the life you chose, so live with it and don't complain. — Mark Rubinstein

I can't help from making money, that is all. — Helena Rubinstein

A novel is the final common pathway of a writer's experiences, fears, wishes, thoughts, feelings & fantasies. All is distilled in a novel. — Mark Rubinstein

I say you call yourself Goldstein, Silverstein, and Rubinstein because you're stealing all the gold and silver and rubies all over the earth - and it's true, because of your thieving and stealing and roguing, and lying all over the face of the planet earth. — Khalid Abdul Muhammad

Every day can be a pilgrimage, if the goal is a deeper sense of your small role in the revolving world. — Dan Rubinstein

At every concert I leave a lot to the moment. I must have the unexpected, the unforeseen. I want to risk, to dare. I want to be surprised by what comes out. I want to enjoy it more than the audience. That way the music can bloom anew. It's like making love. The act is always the same, but each time it's different. — Arthur Rubinstein

Sometimes when I sit down to practice and there is no one else in the room, I have to stifle an impulse to ring for the elevator man and offer him money to come in and hear me. — Arthur Rubinstein

Listening is crucial for any novelist. Stories & ideas abound. We too often talk about ourselves & block out the richness others may offer. — Mark Rubinstein

Sometimes I think, not so much am I a pianist, but a vampire. All my life I have lived off the blood of Chopin. — Arthur Rubinstein

Whatever art--writing, painting, sculpture, acting, dance, music, or any other--there will be frustration & travails. It's all worth it — Mark Rubinstein

For a writer, readers are the best collaborators. — Mark Rubinstein

A writer has only three tools: language, experience and imagination. — Mark Rubinstein

I'm passionately involved in life: I love its change, its color, its movement. To be alive, to be able to see, to walk, to have houses, music, paintings - it's all a miracle. — Arthur Rubinstein

I don't care about the rules of grammar so long as my characters' words sound true to life and bite heavily. — Mark Rubinstein

Never sound pompous. You always sound noble, noble. Absolute character of music is nobility. Even popular music can be noble, you see. If it's not noble, then it's not very good ... Music is an art of emotion, of nobility, of dignity, of greatness, of love, of tenderness. All that must be brought out in music but never a show of pompousness. — Arthur Rubinstein

I love Arthur Rubinstein, especially his live recordings. I think his Chopin Mazurkas, his interpretation of the Polonaises, and the Concertos of Chopin are just incredible. When I was a child, I wanted to play more and more Chopin because of his recordings. — Rafal Blechacz

I am tired before the concert, not afterward. — Arthur Rubinstein

A novel, though fiction, often speaks to the largest truths. — Mark Rubinstein

People are always setting conditions for happiness ... I love life without condition. — Arthur Rubinstein

You cannot play the piano well unless you are singing within you. — Arthur Rubinstein

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

The seasons are what a symphony ought to be: four perfect movements in harmony with each other. — Arthur Rubinstein

I'm a free person; I feel terribly free. They could put me in chains and I still would be free because my thoughts would be mine - and that's all I want to have. — Arthur Rubinstein

Why do I love writing? I can be who I want, do what I want, hurt who I want, and make the world over, just the way I'd love to have it. — Mark Rubinstein

Of course there is no formula for success, except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life, and what it brings — Arthur Rubinstein

That's all the difficulty and the challenge and the battle: to look through this mechanical thing, these bits of glass and metal, at someone. And not lose the sense that this shape is a human being. — Eva Rubinstein

If you're a writer, reading is part of your job description. — Mark Rubinstein

Artur Rubinstein, the famous pianist, was once asked the secret of his success-was it dedication, ability, discipline, hard work? Mr. Rubinstein smiled as he remarked, "It's hard to say, but one thing I do know: if you love life, life will love you back!" What a wonderful insight! That philosophy explains how a man in his eighties can continue to be so creative. For life is simply filled with exciting blessings for everybody. They're ours if we give enough of ourselves to life! — Norman Vincent Peale

A writer's two greatest tools are imagination and perseverance. — Mark Rubinstein

The dead are silenced and the living are speechless.Who's going to tell their stories if I don't? — Gillian Rubinstein

Creativity is its own reward. A writer must relish those unfathomable moments when plot-lines and characters fall into place. It's the closest thing to magic we know. — Mark Rubinstein

I feel that special secret current between the public and me. I can hold them with one little note in the air, and they will not breathe. That is a great, great moment. — Arthur Rubinstein

A writer must learn to be comfortable with buried, shadowy currents deep in the mind, those that form dreams & make hidden connections. — Mark Rubinstein

After I have photographed the way I like to, I feel as I might if I had been making love all day, marvelous and exhausted and wanting to collapse on the floor in a heap. That's why I can't photograph just anybody, and why it's so hard to photograph people on assignment; it's like going to bed with someone not of my choosing. — Eva Rubinstein

A novel need not impart information or inform. It must seduce & snare the reader with feelings & break the reader's heart. — Mark Rubinstein

A writer's refuge is imagination. Therein lies the ability to create a new world and bring order to chaos. — Mark Rubinstein

There is no disputing that in the eyes of Schlechter, Teichmann or even Rubinstein, the backward pawn was something more substantial than lively piece play, but in our day the latter is more often preferred. — David Bronstein

Though teachers pride themselves on having developed bionic hearing (the phrase "I heard that" is a common part of many teachers' vocabularies), sometimes it is better to conceal such super-human powers. — Gary Rubinstein

I have never had my face lifted. I prefer to have my spirits lifted. In my opinion, the effect is very nearly the same. — Helena Rubinstein

Adjust your makeup to the light in which your wear it. — Helena Rubinstein

LAURENE POWELL. Savvy and good-humored Penn graduate, went to Goldman Sachs and then Stanford Business School, married Steve Jobs in 1991. GEORGE RILEY. Jobs's Memphis-born friend and lawyer. ARTHUR ROCK. Legendary tech investor, early Apple board member, Jobs's father figure. JONATHAN "RUBY" RUBINSTEIN. Worked — Walter Isaacson

Life is the game that must be played, this truth at least, good friends, we know; so live and laugh, nor be dismayed as one by one the phantoms go. — Arthur Rubinstein

Stories about [the German composer Johannes] Brahms's rudeness and wit amused me in particular. For instance, I loved the one about how a great wine connoisseur invited the composer to dinner. 'This is the Brahms of my cellar,' he said to his guests, producing a dust-covered bottle and pouring some into the master's glass. Brahms looked first at the color of the wine, then sniffed its bouquet, finally took a sip, and put the glass down without saying a word. 'Don't you like it?' asked the host. 'Hmm,' Brahms muttered. 'Better bring your Beethoven!' — Arthur Rubinstein

It took great courage to ask a beautiful young woman to marry me. Believe me, it is easier to play the whole Petrushka on the piano. — Arthur Rubinstein

Having both a pet and a book ... absolute heaven. — Mark Rubinstein

When people sat in caves, they told stories. It was for sharing, learning, entertaining. Storytelling is as old as we are. It will never die. — Mark Rubinstein

Love life and life will love you back. Love people and they will love you back. — Arthur Rubinstein

I've always thought that a woman owes it to herself to treat the subject of her age with ambiguity. — Helena Rubinstein

Don't write for the market or for others. Write what you know, love and above all, write what you would love to read. — Mark Rubinstein

Creative imagination is a mystery. If you let it flow, it will happen, & you won't know how the idea came to you. It will just materialize. — Mark Rubinstein

A championship contender in the early twentieth century needed charisma and a knack for cultivating sponsorship, and Rubinstein was the epitome of the shy and unsocial chess player. Now matter how great his chess skills, he lacked the people skills to be a self-promoter and fund-raiser. — Garry Kasparov

Yes, I am very lucky, but I have a little theory about this. I have noticed through experience and observation that providence, nature, God, or what I would call the power of creation seems to favor human beings who accept and love life unconditionally, and I am certainly one who does with all my heart. — Arthur Rubinstein

Read everything, absolutely everything. There's no such thing as a book that offers nothing. — Mark Rubinstein

The interaction between author and reader is the most intimate in the world of art. The reader's imagination shares and completes the writer's. — Mark Rubinstein

Kenny, when's the last time you had a physical," Roddy asks.
"What're you...the designated driver of my life?"

"Mad Dog House — Mark Rubinstein

I fell in love with beauty a long, long time ago, but what I wanted was to create beauty - not to be blinded by it. — Helena Rubinstein

Even when I'm sick and depressed, I love life. — Arthur Rubinstein

The result was magnificent ... I became the father of two girls and two boys, lovely children by good fortune they all look like my wife. — Arthur Rubinstein

I feel very vulnerable at Halloween. I feel that people who might come to the door might not have candy intentions. I'm a little lady and I can be overcome. — Zelda Rubinstein

Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can only be felt if you don't set any condition. — Arthur Rubinstein

Ir you're a writer, reading is part of your job description. ~ Mark Rubinstein — Mark Rubinstein

Time, effort & persistence make for the writing of a good novel. There's no such thing as "writer's block." Just reluctance to make the slog — Mark Rubinstein

You don't have to make any decisions right now," Colleen says. "But I'll tell you this. There's life after marriage."

~Excerpt from "Mad Dog Justice — Mark Rubinstein

The pedal is the soul of the piano. — Anton Rubinstein

A good novel takes the reader into the heart of another person. It lands you smack into the life and times of someone else. — Mark Rubinstein

All the American women had purple noses and gray lips and their faces were chalk white from terrible powder. I recognized that the United States could be my life's work. — Helena Rubinstein

Don't tell me how talented you are. Tell me how hard you work. — Arthur Rubinstein

When I was young, I used to have successes with women because I was young. Now I have successes with women because I am old. Middle age was the hardest part. — Arthur Rubinstein

But what parent can tell when some ... fragmentary gift of knowledge or wisdom will enrich her children's lives? Or how a small seed of information passed from one generation to another may generate a new science, a new industry-a seed which neither the giver nor the receiver can truly evaluate at the time. — Helena Rubinstein

We only begin to live life when we learn to accept it on its own terms. — Arthur Rubinstein

Whether you are sixteen or over sixty, remember, understatement is the rule of a fine makeup artist. — Helena Rubinstein

What is a photograph? For me, a fragment of quick-silver, a lucid dream, a scribbled note from the subconscious to be deciphered, perhaps, over years. It is a monologue trying to become a conversation, an offering, an alibi, a salute. — Eva Rubinstein

I am pleased that in a match for the World Championship I was able to conduct a game in the style of Akiba Rubinstein, where the entire strategic course was maintained from the first to the last move. — Boris Gelfand