The performances of my works in the last 10 years are probably equal to all the previous years put together. There are so many venues now and there is a completely new public for opera that's grown up outside of the traditional core opera public.

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

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

The artist is something of an outsider in America. I have always felt that America does not value its artists, certainly not in the sense that the Europeans do.

When I've seen my operas in Europe, they have always struck me as more American than when I hear them here. I can't tell you what that phenomenon is.

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

The story of Willie Stark fascinated me because it was tackling the story of a man who outwardly has all the success one could possibly want and who is destroyed by his personal demons.