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 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.

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.

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

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.

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

Socially I never was an outsider. I have never thought of the conflict element before frankly, but perhaps it was wanting to belong, and at the same time wanting to retain one's own personality.