I probably went to musique concrete concerts - though not the very first ones - at the beginning of the 50s.

Whereas Schaeffer and Henry were working like samplers, their idea was to capture those sounds which couldn't be serially calibrated because they were too complex in character.

I wanted to play piano, and that slid quickly into writing - it wasn't enough to play other people's notes: I had to write notes too.

I have problems with machines which aren't gestural.

Electronic music used pure sounds, completely calibrated. You had to think digitally, as it were, in a way that allowed you to extend serial ideas into other parameters through technology.

Well, first I studied piano. I wasn't very satisfied because I though my teachers were dumb... and repressive.

My sisters were going out with artists and poets, and eventually it was the creative world which attracted me.

I was born in Paris, and I haven't moved, except until now - I live in the suburbs and I hate it.

Boulez seemed to me to be a guy who wrote laws. Like a company lawyer.

With the piano I'm completely in control of the gestural situation-not that I'm going to play the piece myself, but I know what's difficult, what's impossible.

A wise man ought always to follow the paths beaten by great men, and to imitate those who have been supreme, so that if his ability does not equal theirs, at least it will savour of it.

Something I really enjoy about older couples is that they really have given up on getting everything right. They don't sweat the imperfections.

Don't confound static electricity with ecstatic eccentricity. One will leave your hair up, the other will live up in the air!

I decided at the outset to invest in a fairly broad range of businesses, as I didn't want to get pigeonholed into one sector.

We can't stop here, this is bat country!

When I first came to New York, I would scream like a girl and run to the other side of the street if there was a pigeon. Now I can face off with a pigeon.

The absurd duty, too often inculcated, of obeying a parent only on account of his being a parent, shackles the mind, and prepares it for a slavish submission to any power but reason.

I'd like to do a comedy, actually. I think it would be great to do a sitcom or something like that. I'm pretty much open to anything.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing - it only hastens fools to rush in where angels fear to tread.

A writer will do anything to avoid the act of writing.