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

I can't imagine how many first performances I've done, perhaps 500. Some of them have been very good, and some of course very bad.

I love a visceral sound, the kind that hits you in the belly.

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

If we always thought like that, why would we study physics, why would we think of cosmology, why would we do any kind of research? Because we know already so much that there is no one person who can contain all that information.

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

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.