So the real drama for me is balancing live performances and writing, and one of the ways I balance it is I write in hotel rooms. That's not exactly b….

I'd say it's just part of the world that we live in; it's part of the music world..

I'd say the differences are more interesting than the similarities at this point. Certainly no one would ever mistake my music for Steve's [ Reich]..

The problem with listening, of course, is that we don't. There's too much noise going on in our heads, so we never hear anything. The inner conversat….

You get up early in the morning and you work all day. That’s the only secret..

I think it's a great handicap to be discovered at an early age. I didn't have that burden of early success. I had the much more livable and durable c….

I, as a young guy getting out of music school, I didn't like the prospect of spending my life writing music for about 200 people..

It doesn't need to be imagined, it needs to be written down..

What you hear depends on how you focus your ear. We're not talking about inventing a new language, but rather inventing new perceptions of existing l….

You practice and you get better. It's very simple..

I always knew what I wanted to do and I did it..

I don't know that I make a big distinction between the big pieces and the little pieces, because I don't experience them in that way. I mean, by the ….

The generation of composers that are just preceded me, people like [Karlheinz] Stockhausen, [Pierre] Boulez, and, well, [John] Cage for that matter,[….

I've been working in theater, really, since about 1965. I started working with the Mabou Mines about then, and in a way I've always worked in the the….

What came to me as a revelation was the use of rhythm in developing an overall structure in music..

I like the idea that [Mahatma] Gandhi is appearing now in an opera hall in all these different places, and people kind of think about it again..

In order to arrive at a personal style, you have to have a technique to begin with..

I'm interested in what happens to music when other people use it. Whereas there are composers who don't like anyone to touch their music, I think peo….

But the difference between the little pieces and the big pieces - I'm not actually sure which are the little pieces. With some of the big pieces, it'….

If you remember your lineage, you will never feel lonely..

If you don't have a basis on which to make the choice, then you don't have a style at all. You have a series of accidents..