The blues are like the fugue in 18th century. It's probably the music that belongs most to our time.

Characters are an extreme form in Shakespeare's theater.

The nearest figure to myself would be Shakespeare.

I've seldom become nostalgic or settled.

Beethoven suppressed everything, his personal life disappeared until he was locked inside. That is a figure quite extreme.

Music remains the most strange of the materials because we don't understand what happens when music moves you.

Shiva danced the world into existence... that's a very nice thought.