For years I said if I could only find a comfortable chair I would rival Mozart.

We do not hear what we hear..., only what we remember.

For me it's the instrument. If I want to think of a flute and the state of the arts I hear a vibrato; I don't know what a flute is unless the person plays it for me

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

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

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