Whale: [On an emotional level] men and women are exactly the same. But physically I can’t imagine any woman playing the Chopin Godowsky etudes or Rachmaninoff piano concertos; it is just not there by nature.
Q: When you lived in London you used to own a black taxi. Why did you buy one?
Whale: I love the city and really admire London taxi drivers as they have to have four years of knowledge training in order to know all the streets. I was never allowed to take money but I sometimes picked people up and people gave me money anyway. I think I made GBP 50 over two years so I figured out I better stick to playing the piano.
Q: After your competition victory in Warsaw, you phoned the Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman, who said that there was nothing he could teach you.
A: Yes, I phoned him. I would like to talk to all the great pianists: Murray Perahia, Alfred Brendel, and ask them what they think about music. Talking to them, hearing their life experiences, would be different from just hearing them play.
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