Somehow, conductor as this superhuman conduit between the masters and the masterpieces and the immortals.

I always had, deep down, a slight aversion toward the purely cerebral in music.

Orchestras have become used to the emphasis on the separation of layers, of the ultimate precision and clarity.

I went to work one morning, and outside my door was Cindy Crawford in a black bra, and I thought that very clearly the building is making progress in integrating itself into various layers of our culture.

Pulse as an active means of expression, Stravinsky and Beethoven are the two masters of that.

I realized that the European dogma is not necessarily the only way to look at things.

I always felt that one day I would have to make the change in my own life, bite the bullet and see what it is to be a composer who conducts rather than the other way around.