I was encouraged by my mother and, to a lesser extent, by my father.

People in very high places suddenly fall, and we are always surprised because we don't factor in the basic element that they're humans and, therefore, they are flawed and have weaknesses.

If an American audience is given a serious musical theater piece that is well produced, dramatically gripping and wonderfully acted, they'll respond to it.

Like any other composer of opera, I choose a subject not for polemical reasons, but because it contains vivid characters in highly charged dramatic situations.

You can't possibly predict what will last or not. But once you attempt to write for the ages, you're doomed.

It's necessary to track characters all the way through an opera. If you're dealing with more than one or two characters, it's very easy to forget that the others have lives of their own that feed into the story.

I was trying to do something that seemed very natural and easy but which bridged that gulf between the singing voice and the speaking voice.