A lot of the so-called systems composers have this thing that the system is always right. You don't fiddle with it at all. Well, I don't think that. I think the system is as right as you judge it to be. If for some reason you don't like a bit of it you must trust your intuition on that. I don't take a doctrinaire approach to systems.

I had a lot of trouble with engineers, because their whole background is learning from a functional point of view, and then learning how to perform that function.

In the 19th century, a lot of people were against outlawing child labour, because to do so would be against the very foundations of a free market economy: 'These children want to work, these people want to employ them... what is your problem? It's not as if anyone has kidnapped them...'

Repetition doesn't really exist

Try to make things that can become better in other people’s minds than they were in yours.

Put out as much as you can. It doesn't do anything sitting on a shelf.

In the 1960s, people were trying to get away from the pop song format. Tracks were getting longer, or much, much shorter.