It seems to me opera is just as relevant as an expressive art as anything else.

Anyone who creates something new or does something different artistically is going to be singled out.

America tends to worship the modest talent because it doesn't put us in an uncomfortable position vis-a-vis the artist.

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.

Most of the important composers in our country are clustered in the Northeast.

If I felt that one of my operas did not come off I would certainly say so.

I find it enormously valuable to be sure that that the pacing is what I think it is and that the scenes have the shape I think they have musically and dramatically.