I feel that this is my artistic home, and I'm very happy to be a California artist together with many others who are not from here originally but who decided to make this the center of their activities. There's something about that that I find very inspiring and satisfying.

The underlying process in Northern music tends to be slower and continuous, whatever's happening on the surface; in Southern music the underlying process is always faster.

Anyone who composes and conducts at the same time is immediately suspect, because he must be faking one or the other.

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.

After 30 years I have realized the greatest pleasure I can get is to have learnt.

The players never think they project enough. In a hall that seats 3,300 people, it's a very scary thing to play so quietly that you can barely hear yourself.

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