I'm composing more than before. I'm cutting down on conducting.

Once you get over the first hill, there is always a new, higher one lurking, of course.

There will have to be times when I'm not conducting because I'm composing. I haven't solved that problem, and perhaps I never will.

Orchestras have become used to the emphasis on the separation of layers, of the ultimate precision and clarity.

As we watch TV or films, there are no organic transitions, only edits. The idea of A becoming B, rather than A jumping to B, has become foreign.

The act of conducting in itself, of waving my arms in the air and being in charge, I didn't miss. I missed the sensual pleasure of being in contact with music.

My music wouldn't sound the way it does if I hadn't had the experience of conducting.

Pulse as an active means of expression, Stravinsky and Beethoven are the two masters of that.

This conducting thing happened. In 1983 I was sucked into this international career, which was a very scary experience.

I discovered that the people of the North are different and there's no way you can make a person from the North similar to a Southerner. They're two different worlds.

I feel very free and very happy to be a composer.

In this effort to attain security, independence and privacy of course were suspect....

I'm sure people in the business have said: She's too old for that part. I don't hear about it because your agent protects you from those negative things.

I am thinking about launching a wine website where there is a deal and the crowd can dictate how cheap it can get.

I know that Martin Johnson [the England coach] was in the stands, but I didn't feel it was up to me to impress them. He and his assistant [Brian Smith] were here to support me.

Anything that happens gradually is always irrevocable.

There is, then, a link between the logistics of perception, the wars in Lebanon and the Gulf as well as with CNN and the Pentagon.

Optimism refuses to believe that the road ends without options.

To create a perfume you have to be the servant of the unconscious. Each idea evolves and transforms, but there should be a surprise with each note.

For did my dreams come true when I looked at you. And maybe too, if you would believe, you too might be overjoyed, over loved, over me.

Hobbies are for wimps who don’t have the guts to follow their passion.