Traditions are imploding and exploding everywhere - everything is coming together, for better or worse, and we can no longer pretend were all living in different worlds because were on different continents.

I don't know that I make a big distinction between the big pieces and the little pieces, because I don't experience them in that way. I mean, by the same token, you're out touring with a band and then you're writing string quartets, and in a funny way, isn't it all the same, in a way? It's all just music.

The work I've done is the work I know, and the work I do is the work I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing.

You get up early in the morning and you work all day. That’s the only secret.

I'd say the differences are more interesting than the similarities at this point. Certainly no one would ever mistake my music for Steve's [ Reich].

I'd say it's just part of the world that we live in; it's part of the music world.

I always knew what I wanted to do and I did it.