Spanish news paper El País was able to get a few words out of Rattle when he received the Príncipe de Asturias award.
In this short interview he compares the Berliner Philharmoniker to Real Madrid, saying that though they are all great figures, all that greatness goes into team work. He also confesses that he would had liked to be an actor -that is, if music hadn’t catch him before- but that he would specialize in villains… he would have had to restle with the likes of John Malkovich, Sir Antony Hopkins, Chistopher Walken.. ah, I think I can imagine that movie… he also mentions a little crisis he had, over 20 years ago and about the wise advice he got from someone.
Oh yeah, and he also talks about food, his other great passion. Besides literature -you have to remember that our man is quite a book worm 
Sir Simon Rattle in Segovia, Spain. By Cristóbal Manuel
And for those of you that can read spanish, here is a bite of that interview:
Rattle, que lleva camino de convertirse en una leyenda de la dirección de orquesta, enrojece al escuchar elogios. El mito se sincera: “Hace 20 años tuve una crisis profunda, como la mayoría de los músicos. No sabía si estaba en el camino correcto. No tenía claro si la dirección elegida era el acertada; si lo que yo quería lograr con la música era posible. Entonces un director me dijo: ‘No te preocupes, cada vez va a ser más duro’. Ahora, a medida que pasa el tiempo y aprendo más, sé que cuanto más arriba llegas sabes fracasar mejor”.
