I don't think there is much American music.

My attitude to writing is like when you do wallpapering, you remember where all the little bits are that don't meet. And then your friends say: It's terrific!

The thing about influence is that any composer worth anything will give you the same names.

I don't have ideas so much as there are things which constantly evolve... there are various threads or layers, if you like, which change.

When I was confronted with official tuition, the academic thing, I could see no relationship whatever between that and the music I'd been writing since I was 11.

My operas and my theatre works are very formal pieces.

It's the irrational things that interest me.