I've been called a minimalist composer for more than 30 years, and while I've never really agreed with the description, I've gotten used to it.

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

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

I like the idea that [Mahatma] Gandhi is appearing now in an opera hall in all these different places, and people kind of think about it again.

Finally, ultimately, you write music for yourself. I mean, I need a public, I need people to play, I need everything else. I'm not working in isolation. But finally the man that writes the music is alone. And I have to respond to those criteria which are almost like inner needs or inner responses.

I've been called a minimalist composer for more than 30 years, and while I've never really agreed with the description, I've gotten used to it.

Theatrical times are different from concert times, to put it simply. Taking a figure like [Mahatma] Gandhi and setting him on a stage requires thinking about what theater is about and what the whole experience is about and what we're trying to communicate in that way, so you get into certain less abstract considerations.