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

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

It's amazing how fast generations lose sight of other generations. One of the first things the young composers who come to work with me say is that they want to write music people will like, instead of gaining their credentials by being rejected by the audience.

Our most intimate contact with civilizations long since dust has been through the art which has survived them.

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.

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

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