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!

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

I didn't have a record player.

I don't think there is much American music.

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

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.

Minimalism now is a reaction to what came before. It's absolutely of its time. Music moved into the set theory thing, and moved out of it.