You practice and you get better. It's very simple.

So the real drama for me is balancing live performances and writing, and one of the ways I balance it is I write in hotel rooms. That's not exactly balancing. Actually, writing in hotel rooms means that I'm refusing to deal with the problem.

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.

You practice and you get better. It's very simple.

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

If you don't have a basis on which to make the choice, then you don't have a style at all. You have a series of accidents.

It doesn't need to be imagined, it needs to be written down.