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.

Stravinsky is masterly: his harmony is conceived so precisely that it can only be the way it is.

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

We're not talking about an elite art form from the price point of view. We have a building in L.A. that is incredibly open, exciting, inviting, and all that, and there's no reason for this music not to be part of everybody's everyday life.

The sort of commercial parameters of classical music changed after the [World War II] , and the whole industry became more backward-looking.

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

I love a visceral sound, the kind that hits you in the belly.