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.

Most of those melodies are me trying to find out what notes fit, and then hitting ones that don't fit in a very interesting way.

Anything popular is populist, and populist is rarely a good adjective.

As soon as I hear a sound, it always suggests a mood to me.

Things that are very popular are not taken seriously, because the snobbish side of one says, "Well, if everyone likes it it can't be that good." Whereas if only I and a couple of other people like it, then it must be really something special.

The thing that obsesses me more than anything is waste - the waste of human intelligence and creativity.

One of the things you're doing when you make art, apart from entertaining yourself and other people, is trying to see what ways of working feel good, what feels right.