Most music is metaphor, but Wolff is not. I am not metaphor either. Parable, maybe. Cage is sermon.

I was once married to a woman who could eat anything and tell you what was in it: the most complicated recipes. Her memory of taste - now that's what I call memory!

I never understood what rules I was supposed to learn, and what rules I was supposed to break

At one point [Cardew] taught himself to play guitar simply in order to take part in the performance in a composition by Boulez, which is a little like saying he learned Danish to read Kiekegaard.

What was great about the 50s is that for one brief moment - maybe, say, six weeks - nobody understood art.

I never feel that my music is sparse or minimalist; the way fat people never really think they're fat. I certainly don't consider myself minimalist at all

If you think you might have secret information listening to me, you're lost.