What is American music? The most satisfying answer I've come across is that it was a kind of natural comfort with the vernacular which is diverse and….

I think anything that is expressed directly and as honestly as possible will last..

It seems to me opera is just as relevant as an expressive art as anything else..

We think the Puritans always dressed in black and white, which they didn't. They loved very bright colors. And there were other differences in percep….

I've never set out consciously to write American music. I don't know what that would be unless the obvious Appalachian folk references..

Anyone who creates something new or does something different artistically is going to be singled out..

The performances of my works in the last 10 years are probably equal to all the previous years put together. There are so many venues now and there i….

There is something inherent in our democracy that tends to want to level. America is a little uncomfortable in the presence of someone who is distinc….

If an American audience is given a serious musical theater piece that is well produced, dramatically gripping and wonderfully acted, they'll respond ….

Our most intimate contact with civilizations long since dust has been through the art which has survived them..

People in very high places suddenly fall, and we are always surprised because we don't factor in the basic element that they're humans and, therefore….

I had all the normal interests - I played basketball and I headed the school paper. But I also developed very early a great love for music and litera….

When I've seen my operas in Europe, they have always struck me as more American than when I hear them here. I can't tell you what that phenomenon is..

The artist is something of an outsider in America. I have always felt that America does not value its artists, certainly not in the sense that the Eu….

If something is successful with the audience, it's automatically suspect; the reverse is to say that not to reach audiences is the greatest complimen….

You can't possibly predict what will last or not. But once you attempt to write for the ages, you're doomed..

I was encouraged by my mother and, to a lesser extent, by my father..

Socially I never was an outsider. I have never thought of the conflict element before frankly, but perhaps it was wanting to belong, and at the same ….

America tends to worship the modest talent because it doesn't put us in an uncomfortable position vis-a-vis the artist..

Like any other composer of opera, I choose a subject not for polemical reasons, but because it contains vivid characters in highly charged dramatic s….

It's necessary to track characters all the way through an opera. If you're dealing with more than one or two characters, it's very easy to forget tha….