I don't think there is much American music.

I think music has gone through a period of something very severe, rather radical, rather the way painting did with cubism.

I didn't have a record player.

I don't have ideas so much as there are things which constantly evolve... there are various threads or layers, if you like, which change.

When I was confronted with official tuition, the academic thing, I could see no relationship whatever between that and the music I'd been writing since I was 11.

The opera tells the story with all the built-in contradictions and from many different angles.

The theatre only knows what it's doing next week, not like the opera, where they say: 'What are we going to do in five years' time?' A completely different attitude.

Music is such a problem in the time it takes.

People say my music is English. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's not me writing English music, but that English music is becoming more like me.

Minimalism now is a reaction to what came before. It's absolutely of its time. Music moved into the set theory thing, and moved out of it.

The thing about influence is that any composer worth anything will give you the same names.

If we really want to learn how to forgive, perhaps we had better start with something easier than the Gestapo.

One thing I can say about the Motown acts is that we were a family. That's not a myth.

To appreciate present conditions, collate them with those of antiquity.

How much we like ourselves governs our performance.

Imitate the magnificent trees that speak no word of their rapture, but only breathe largely the luminous breeze.

To the pessimist the light at the end of the tunnel is another train.

Atrocity is truly emperor; All things that thrive are slaves of cruel Creation.

It is Martin King who taught that a real moral struggle seeks to win partners, not to leave victims.

It's not the fish you catch, it's the peace of mind you take home at the end of the day.

You can attract more bees with a spoonful of sugar than a cupful of vinegar.