Stephen Hough Quotes

Freedom comes with the impossibility of choosing.

Stephen Hough

• Freedom
• Choosing
• Impossibility

Classical music thinks in centuries, not four-year terms.

Stephen Hough

• Thinks
• Centuries
• Classical Music

Playing the piano is incredibly personal... But when it's your own piece, it's doubly so.

Stephen Hough

• Own
• Personal
• Piano

There's certainly no doubt that commercialism has entered classical music to such a degree that almost no one seems to care anymore about the physical and mental health of the performer.

Stephen Hough

• Health
• Performer
• Commercialism

Musicians keep playing when the lights go out, when people are suffering, confused, or angry.

Stephen Hough

• Suffering
• Playing
• Musicians

My principal commitment is playing the piano. But I always loved words.

Stephen Hough

• Words
• Commitment
• Loved

I've twice been on the point of giving up my performing career to train for the priesthood.

Stephen Hough

• Career
• Performing
• Priesthood

I can admire music where you feel the composer has everything organized and perfectly shaped, but it doesn't touch me. I like to feel that a composer is wounded, like all of us.

Stephen Hough

• Music
• Composer
• Wounded

I've always written - about music, art, things going on around the world. The danger is that it becomes too personal. I don't think people want it at that level of intimacy.

Stephen Hough

• Music
• Written
• Intimacy

Why do people compose music? Why do people listen to music? When we go into a concert, we go into a place where we want to experience a sort of ecstasy, to come out of ourselves.

Stephen Hough

• Music
• Experience
• Ecstasy