My FATHER had a PIANO that was a nickelodeon - PUT a NICKEL, and the ROLLER would play.

I know melody. I know rhythm; I know bass guitar; I know the piano. I know EVERYTHING about MUSIC that helps BUILD the music that go along with creating the whole art FORM, you know what I'm saying?

My parents didn't have records, they didn't have radios, and they didn't LISTEN to music. My grandmother was my main connection to ART and music. She could PLAY PIANO very well, and she had PERFECT pitch.

I don't THINK any of the early ROMANTIC composers knew how to write for the PIANO... The music of that era is full of empty theatrical gestures, full of exhibitionism, and it has a worldly, hedonistic QUALITY that simply TURNS me off.

I remember that when I was in my 30s, a hot age for an ACTRESS, lots of offers were coming in, but nothing was GREAT, and I didn't WORK for 18 months. It was at a really fruitful age, and I wanted to work. There was nothing coming down the pipeline that I thought was GOOD - and then I got 'The Piano.'

I think that, initially, I was most passionate about MUSIC and particularly about playing the PIANO. I started playing when I was NINE, and I was obsessed with it, really. I wouldn't even go spend the night at a friend's unless they had a piano. But I didn't have the chops, the extraordinary TALENT to be able to play the piano professionally.

I THINK Ada in 'The Piano' is the most interior CHARACTER I've ever had the chance to PLAY, either on the STAGE or in ANYTHING I've done for film or TV.

In many PARTS, I start from the OUTSIDE and then it triggers things within. For 'The Piano,' I went, 'I'm going to learn these piano pieces. I'm going to learn this sign LANGUAGE, and I'm going to do them all day every day, five days a week.' It was a totally PHYSICAL thing.

My HOBBIES are playing piano and guitar, pining for GIRLS, worrying about climate change, pining for girls, and the POETRY of JOHN Keats.

I NEVER use a piano stool. I always use a DRUM stool. Because I FEEL that when you're down there, you're playing in that way you're SUPPOSED to. I like to be above it.

I grew up in a FAMILY of piano players. Both my sisters were SERIOUS players, and they both, as they BECAME more accomplished, ASPIRED to buy a Steinway and asked my DAD to buy a Steinway.

There is no better feeling in the UNIVERSE, other than being MARRIED and having a family, than standing on stage BEHIND a piano and having 5,000 people waving at you. You cannot BOTTLE that.

I STARTED off as a kid singing with my dad. My dad was my BEST pal. But he had seven KIDS, and I was the only one who was kind of interested in what he was playing and singing at the PIANO. And he was not only my dad, but he was my best pal, and I was interested in doing whatever he wanted to.

As a MUSICIAN, your instrument is almost predetermined. I had played DRUMS, piano, clarinet, but when I heard Wayne Shorter play the saxophone, I KNEW that SOUND is what I WANTED.

I GREW up with the PIANO. I LEARNED its LANGUAGE as I learned to SPEAK.