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

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.

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.

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

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.

We equate choice with freedom, but they are not the same.

Like all tools, modern technology has produced some wonderful moments in music and also some horrors.

What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money.

I'll live in another world, then.

To those who much has been given, much is expected.

I don't really care. I shouldn't have to care. I shouldn't have to work this hard. I realize now that dying is easy. Living is hard.

Often how you define the problem will determine whether or not you're able to find a real solution.

That's what ever great writer, I believe, has done over the course of time - is they've figured out new ways of telling the same stories.

AIDS is our number one enemy. This enemy can be defeated. While the research for a cure continues, four principles -- love, support, acceptance and care for those affected -- can make us winners.

If I weren't a director, I would want to be a film composer.