Part-time invalid

While I was waiting for the elevator to come, a very fat man came up and shook hands with me for no reason. Then he said, “You are the most handsome musician I've ever seen. Now tell me something. One moment you walk across the stage like an invalid. But the next moment you play the cello so powerfully and dramatically. Your playing is full of life. And then, when you walk back to play another instrument, you are an invalid again. How do you switch back and forth like that?”

At that time the elevator came and we went inside. Both of us were smiling at each other in the elevator as it went up.

— 18 November 1984