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

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.

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.

The underlying process in Northern music tends to be slower and continuous, whatever's happening on the surface; in Southern music the underlying process is always faster.

That’s how it is, day after day... night after night. The Moon chases her sunsets constantly, hoping for a mere glimpse. And for him, that was enough.

Don't fear the unknown for it may be the change you're looking for. And, once you've crossed that bridge be prepared to change once again for the only for sure in life is change.

Liam recoiled as if I'd hoofed him in the danglies.

That's one thing you learn in sports. You don't give up you fight to the finish.

I don't believe in being typecast. If I believed it, it probably would have happened to me. You attract what you make.

If we all got angry together something might be done.

I'm the last person who has any desire to instruct anybody in shame. That's no errand for me.

The Word of God tells us of the day when tears shall be gone forever. Until we come to that day, we move through this world in the midst of tears.

When God made the color purple, God was just showing off.

That which takes effect by chance is not an art.