Artur Schnabel: Perfect pitch

Q: Do you think having perfect pitch is an advantage or disadvantage?

A: It is an advantage, but no indispensable. Relative pitch is, however, sufficient and even more important. If you know with what tones a piece of music starts, you ought to know also all relations and modulations which follow. To have absolute pitch is, I repeat, a musical asset, but by no means the sign of a good musician.