I feel very free and very happy to be a composer.

This conducting thing happened. In 1983 I was sucked into this international career, which was a very scary experience.

Lots of really interesting people move to U.S and decide to work here, because of this whole attitude and openness. I'm absolutely convinced that this is just the beginning. In a couple decades we will see an even more dramatic change.

As we watch TV or films, there are no organic transitions, only edits. The idea of A becoming B, rather than A jumping to B, has become foreign.

I don't believe in an annual dose of film music for the sake of it being film music. If we program film music, it will be because there is a real artistic reason for doing so.

Conducting was just something that happened by fluke.

I discovered that the people of the North are different and there's no way you can make a person from the North similar to a Southerner. They're two different worlds.