If I were in a position to announce a public competition to coin a new word, I would do so right now.

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.

Adventures are what happens when an event is flawed, a mark of imperfection.

No one was meant to see hell before they got there. No one should have to live with the devil. So many homilies on faith were ruined once you no longer required it for belief.

I can't say I've ever had a dream about space or that I ponder it all the time.

The principle of the Gothic architecture is infinity made imaginable.

I'll make a horrible housewife. It's not like I'm disgusting, but I'm pretty bad about having a drink or eating something and then leaving the plate and rushing to go.

Our ideals, like the gods of old, are constantly demanding human sacrifices.

As long as art lives never shall I accept that men are truly dead.

And Vishous. . . V was the worst of them. He stood by the door, staring into space. Icy before, he was glacial now, a sinkhole in the room. -Phury's thoughts

Happiness doesn't just flow from success; it actually causes it.

You're not turning the picture over to a system or a process, you are the process, and the most important thing is to have things exactly as you want them.