The theatre only knows what it's doing next week, not like the opera, where they say: 'What are we going to do in five years' time?' A completely different attitude.

Music is such a problem in the time it takes.

There are rhythmic ideas which sometimes only work up to a point. In writing there are moments when it just comes off the page, it's not just a collection of notes.

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

The piece that had a large influence on me was Turangalila.

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

I think music has gone through a period of something very severe, rather radical, rather the way painting did with cubism.