I find respect for a mediocre British composer, as opposed to a really good American, ridiculous because they automatically respect a composer if he's from England.

If you take a violin, you can make it sound 50 different ways. Not just pizzicato and played by the bow, but ponticello, and harmonics, and tremolos. If you take an oboe and play it, there's about one way you can make it sound: like an oboe.

The French Revolution is the ultimate modernist statement. Destroy everything. Don't build on the past. There is no past.

I have tremendous respect for film composers.

Jazz is not the popular culture. Jazz is in the same position in our culture as classical music. A very small minority of people really love it.

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.