I think if you would like to describe composing as an act with one word, "slow" would be the word.

We need new art. Old art cannot do that. It can do lots of other things, and of course humanity hasn't changed that much in the last thousand or two thousand years.So that the old Greek dramas are still at the very heart, core, of human experience, but still we need new stuff.

I'm composing more than before. I'm cutting down on conducting.

The music I turn out these days is the kind of music I want to hear myself.

In Europe, there is so much tradition, and everyone has established ideas as to what art should be and what it has always been.

The act of conducting in itself, of waving my arms in the air and being in charge, I didn't miss. I missed the sensual pleasure of being in contact with music.

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