In the range of music that we play - roughly 300 years' worth-there really are more similarities than differences.

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

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

As we watch TV or films, there are no organic transitions, only edits. The idea of A becoming B, rather than A jumping to B, has become foreign.

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.

There's so much energy exchange [in conduction], so you get back a lot, of course, but you also have to give a lot. It's kind of high-energy thing.

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