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

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

The nearest figure to myself would be Shakespeare.

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

I remain a humanist. We are a very curious race.

I'm outside the music I've made. I have no interest in it.

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