What I don't want to do is to go and buy a bunch of exotic-looking drums and set up an Afrikanische Musik in New York City.

I discovered that the most interesting music of all was made by simply lining the loops in unison, and letting them slowly shift out of phase with other.

All great music is contemporary. If it's still alive and kicking, then it's contemporary. If it fades away, it was a period piece. It had its moment, and that was it.

As a matter of fact, I personally would much rather hear Perotin than Mozart.

In serial music, the series itself is seldom audible... What I'm interested in is a compositional process and a sounding music that are one in the same thing.

All music does come from a time and place. I was born and raised in New York. I moved out of New York, but it's inside of me and it will be inside of me until they put me in a box in the ground.

I'm not making any absurd comparisons between myself and Bach, but I aspire to that, that my music will have the legs to survive whatever context it finds itself in.

Up to the age of 14 I had not heard a note of anything before 1750, never heard a note of Bach, never heard anything after Wagner, and never heard any real jazz.

Dreams in your life are like light bulbs that brighten your room. But having them on the ceiling is just not enough

Survival is the foundation of endurance

In the moments between bullets, those in foxholes regain their vision. They get to count the dead, feel for holes. Pain creeps through a sluice of calm.

Passion produced out of prayer and praise pushes you to extremes.

If you don't like my announcing, you don't like me.

The Heavenly Father does not ask for golden vessels. He does not ask for silver vessels. God asks for yielded vessels.

There should be celebration rallies when people die... We believe in dialectics, and so we can't not be in favor of death.

I allow a lot of room for improvisation and funny stuff. I always feel planned.

It's better to build than to buy if you can find the right people.

Being in the stands is very difficult. I was never playing but I am nervous watching, waiting.