One thing I've tried to do in writing music is take on very basic things, very archetypal things.

I always write the pieces I want to write.

People say my music is English. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's not me writing English music, but that English music is becoming more like me.

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

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.

I'm not a music lover in the sense that I look for something to have on. I've never had that attitude to music.

Music is such a problem in the time it takes.