You don't underestimate either players or audience in any circumstances.

I recently did a piece for the Boston Pops and John Williams, and I hope that it's as well a composed piece as I've ever done for any other medium or occasion.

If you don't get feedback from your performers and your audience, you're going to be working in a vacuum.

You can't pander to your audience. You might in the short term, but ultimately you can't hoodwink them, either.

An audience shouldn't listen with complacency.

There’s no card, business card, better than a compact disc for a composer. It doesn’t half impress people and they get a long way on it ... these composers they will get more performances, more commissions, more recognition just by having that disc

If you aim at anything lower that is expecting your audience to be really alert and aware, then you're going to be caught out sooner or later as a composer.