Eighty percent of my pieces gravitate towards an A, as a tonal thing, not at the beginning, but somewhere in it.

I think it's good for the composer to teach because you always have new students and you have to begin at the beginning and make things clear.

I'm glad I won it because when I grew up the Pulitzer was the award that every composer wanted and I was like that too.

I always conceive a piece as a different set of challenges.

You become a great composer when you win a Pulitzer. But I think that now it's a completely meaningless award.

I don't think that the Pulitzer should be given the way it is. I think the competition should be anonymous. I think completely different people would win it if the names were taken off because a lot of it is done on relationships and names.

What I think of as style - and I've gotten to this over years of really thinking about it - is that style is the unconscious choices I make.