At the very core of my relationship to learning is the idea that we should be as organic as possible. We need to cultivate a deeply refined introspective sense, and build our relationship to learning around our nuance of character.

Initially I was very drawn to the Tao Te Ching, the Taoist philosophy. It was helping me deal with the balance of these external and internal issues with my chess life. Tai chi is the martial embodiment of Taoist philosophy. Initially, I had no intention of competing in the martial arts; it was just the meditation.

In America, people focus on the end result; they focus on the star.

My coach and my parents both had this relationship to what I was doing, which was allowing me to express myself with chess. And so I could love it. I had a passion for it. I was expressing myself through chess, and I was learning about myself through chess.

I think first and foremost, you've got to be able to run the football to be successful in college football. Some teams have thrown the ball 60 times a game and had success doing that. But I think you've got to be able to run the football to have success.

I think that I was raised by two of the best people ever. My mother and father are just the definition of hard work, like what hard work brings to you. They've taught me and my brothers and sisters to set your goals high and to give everything to reach them.

If you don't have money or you come from a background that doesn't have money, it's harder to achieve your ambition in life. It's not that you can't, but it becomes harder. Inequality is one of the worst things that can exist in our society, so I am interested in those kind of things.

It's hard to find an emblem of cultural, national pride that burns as bright as Israel's success in classical music.