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

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

In the end it doesn't matter what you do.

I think there are influences that you open the door to, and influences that come under the door.

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

My operas usually come from musical ideas rather than ideas about subject matter.

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