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.

I've never set out consciously to write American music. I don't know what that would be unless the obvious Appalachian folk references.

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.

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

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

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.

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.