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

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.

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

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

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

I found a certain kind of music congenial to me; it never occurred to me to write music that was academically acceptable.

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