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.

It would be very tempting to say that why paint because we have Michelangelo, we have Leonardo [Da Vinci], we have all these guys. Why waste your time, because most likely you're not going to be on that level anyway.

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

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

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

If I were in a position to announce a public competition to coin a new word, I would do so right now.

There will have to be times when I'm not conducting because I'm composing. I haven't solved that problem, and perhaps I never will.