I get nervous before I conduct a concert, but then you just go out there and do it.

I always say that I can help someone who can already compose, but if they can't, I can't help them. I can advise on technical issues, of course, like how low the piccolo can go, but otherwise what's important is not wisdom but enthusiasm.

The London music world isn't a particularly cohesive place. And when I'm composing, I'm not very friendly. I need isolation.

The feelings of being in the audience and being on the podium are very far apart. When you're onstage and something goes wrong, you can do something about it. In the audience, you just have to sit there, and if it's a disastrous performance, I'm the one that gets blamed.

Concerts are dangerous because anything can happen - which is one of the joys as well.

I get nervous before I conduct a concert, but then you just go out there and do it.

It's not only that I want to get things right when I'm composing but that my imagination often gets lost, and then I have to wait until I come back to the path. I think there's an internal force that makes a piece logical from beginning to end; I like to tell stories in music that are unexpected but also logical.