Something I’ve realized lately, to my shock, is that I am an optimist, in that I think humans are almost infinitely capable of self-change and self-modification, and that we really can build the future that we want if we’re smart about it.

The philosophical idea that there are no more distances, that we are all just one world, that we are all brothers, is such a drag! I like differences.

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...'

The point about melody and beat and lyric is that they exist to engage you in a very particular way. They want to occupy your attention.

Any constraint is part of the skeleton that you build the composition on - including your own incompetence.

I despise computers in many ways. I think they’re hopelessly underevolved and overrated.

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