Every couple weeks I'll listen to Sibelius's Seventh Symphony, just to check in, to see how it's doing. It's doing OK.

Riding a horse is a relationship with a foreign creature, and with musicians it's a similar thing: "OK, I'm going to put something on the page that will spook you into rushing." Little games you can play.

I'm pretty clear about what I'm capable of doing.

I'm trying to phase out my availability on the phone. People call you when you're walking down the street and say the most random stuff.

I didn't entertain the idea that my music would ever become available in any of the ways that I had previously known music to be available.

I think my generation is a lost generation in a way.

Whenever I get asked to write orchestra music or music that is for a lot of players, I try to make it a little sad.