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.

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.

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

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

Most of the important composers in our country are clustered in the Northeast.

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.

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