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

My operas and my theatre works are very formal pieces.

I'm not an architectural composer.

Music is such a problem in the time it takes.

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!

When I dealt with set theory, I could never make it be the music that I wanted.

When I was a kid, I wrote music - from the age of 11 until the age of 18.