I'm really interested in writing a piece of music that will move you, that will really move you. That is really the only reason that I'm writing music.

Now, what we are not talking about, what you're really coming to, is what compromises one makes so that the listener understands somewhat of what you're doing, what you're trying to express.

I'm really interested in writing a piece of music that will move you, that will really move you. That is really the only reason that I'm writing music.

Improvisation is terribly haphazard.

Besides merely some pleasure that we get out of the combinations of pitches together and lines, I think that there is some satisfaction that we get in the fact of having this diffuse thing organized very concretely and put onto a frame and have it actually decided.

We can use techniques in modifying things, in controlling things, but the first impulse has to be something that you simply cannot make just out of technique, or else it becomes perfectly evident that it is nothing but technique that you're exercising.

You write it down because finally, when it's written down you do get it out of your system somewhat.