When I've finally got the title, I think, "Okay, yes, now I know where we are. Now I know what it is. Fine, that must be finished or nearly finished.

I'd rather hold one note for an hour and modulate it so that it means something than play 3,000 notes in 15 seconds.

Except in a few cases like Music for Airports, which was a very clear case of noticing a niche [and] saying, "Okay, there's this situation in which people always play music, and nobody has written music for that situation so I'm going to." So, that was a very clear example of spotting a niche and working for it. I have done that occasionally.

The difficulty of always feeling that you ought to be doing something is that you tend to undervalue the times when you’re apparently doing nothing, and those are very important times.

Lyrics are the only thing to do with music that haven't been made easier technically.

I see TV as a picture medium rather than a narrative medium.

When people censor themselves they're just as likely to get rid of the good bits as the bad bits.