Joanna MacGregor

"As a musician you can cover everything. Im not just a concert pianist."

"Memory is the fear, and I play most of my repertoire from memory."

"I quite like shutting the door, putting the answering machine on and sitting at the piano for six or seven hours."

"I know I get up peoples noses," "Everyone wants to pigeonhole you. Early on in my career I somehow got labelled Bach, John Cage and a bit of jazz. But the fact that I love to play Beethoven, too, really infuriates people. It doesnt fit. They cant make sense of it. The received wisdom is that you cant possibly do all these things without it sounding terrible or crass or just plain wrong."

"Im becoming very interested in non-Western things, and in Europe a lot of whats offered to me is the Western tradition Ive grown up with. Now Ive got to find a way out, but the problem is that the piano is just about as Western as you can get. The pianos my instrument, and I wouldnt want it any other way, but Im gravitating quite naturally towards things that have developed my sense of rhythm. "Ive come to all this incredible Indian classical music and its more modern formations late in the day; the Messiaen Ive played has led me down that road, and Ive been following my nose all the time."

"I want to move away from complexity. Ive done my time as far as virtuosity and piles of notes are concerned. Its what puts me off a lot of contemporary classical music - there are so many notes. In fact, I think Im moving away from classical music altogether. Im not sure that in 10 years time Ill be playing it at all."

"I didnt go to school until I was 11. On your own you develop imagination."

"As I get older I realise that start has made me rather, well, different. It set down a tremendous template for the rest of my life. I grew up believing the piano is a great instrument because you can play everything on it."

"I can see it must seem strange, but to me it was normality. Really, my memory of my childhood is that the sun always shone and I spent all my time playing in the park. Since then Ive discovered that some of the great musicians I admire - Charles Ives, John Cage, even Bob Dylan - had quite unconventional childhoods." Evening Standard - 04/07/2002"

"My education was very intensive and I applied that training later on to playing the piano. I had always played, but having no one to compare myself to, I had no idea if I was any good."

"Not only was I fiddling around at the keyboard but there were all these other children of all backgrounds wanting to play every sort of music bits of classical, jazz, pop, improvisation." The Guardian - 26/05/2000"

"Ive played Bach since I was a little girl. I cant let a day go by without playing him. Hes so witty and secretive and funny and mathematical and brilliant."