I don't listen to recordings very much now, to be perfectly honest. I listened to them a lot when I was younger.

My father ran the gamut: a favorite of his was Josef Hofmann, but there was also Friedman, Rachmaninoff, Godowsky, Lhevinne, Moiseiwitsch, Paderewski, etc.

To be perfectly honest, I was never really aware that I had any special abilities. When you have what you have, you don't really think about what you don't have; you simply work with what you have.

Very rarely do I work on mechanics now. I tend to solve problems within the music itself.

As far as the style, I can't say there is one definite style. I probably feel most comfortable writing in a tonal idiom, with considerable, if not extreme chromaticism.

Every composer understands and uses the system of notation differently, and that's what makes you appreciate the trouble they go through in doing so.

If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.

Keep your head up and smile, because someone somewhere wants to see you fail.

That was the moment he got the idea he possessed me in a certain way, and that was the moment I grew tired of him.

Vladimir Putin is a war criminal.

The Lord is well aware of our mortality. He knows our weaknesses. He understands the challenges of our everyday lives. He has great empathy for the temptations of earthly appetites and passions.

Losing and dying: it's the same thing.

I feel like I have a lot of novel ideas, but they often come up while I'm already in the process of working on a book. You have to watch out with the slutty new idea.

I was a Christian in Creed, but nobody ever asked me.

I was influenced by European movies, old Fellini, old Kurosawa - any sort of foreign film.