I wrote music as soon as I knew notation.

My operas and my theatre works are very formal pieces.

You either are or you're not.

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.

This sounds horribly pretentious, but I like to think that if music hadn't existed, I could have invented it.

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.

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.