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.

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

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

It's necessary to track characters all the way through an opera. If you're dealing with more than one or two characters, it's very easy to forget that the others have lives of their own that feed into the story.

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.

There is something inherent in our democracy that tends to want to level. America is a little uncomfortable in the presence of someone who is distinctly superior in whatever way.

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.