I went to the University of California, Santa Cruz for a year, which turned out to be a really vibrant, very intensive intellectual atmosphere where you could do a lot of aspect of music without it being a conservatory. And that's why I went there.

One of the things I like most of all is being in my study, in my barn, with absolutely no sound anywhere thinking about something. It's extremely important to me.

I had grown up and gone to high school in New York, so I wanted to get out of the east coast.

I listen to a lot of music that teenagers are listening to because I'm around them.

I love working with technology because it allows me to follow my imagination and to invent new things.

Nobody talks about music as having intrinsic meaning, how it engages the mind.

I've done a lot of operas. I've probably done more different kind of operas than anybody.