Sometimes you spend nine months, 10 months, a year writing a piece that you will hear two years later or something like that, and you never see anybody. It's a very different sort of metabolic.

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

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

Our industry [classic music] has kind of retarded into this kind of endless cover-producing thing, and it's a pity.

With American orchestras, in particular, because they play in such huge halls, getting a true pianissimo is very hard.

When an artist works today or whenever, it's not about creating immortal masterpieces, because that's the one thing we don't decide ourselves.

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.