I feel very free and very happy to be a composer.

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.

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.

Fathers are ironic, they want democracy in their country but dictatorship in their home.

I do not judge the individual based on their belief. If I were to, then I would, undoubtedly, be no better than the (religious) system that I frown upon.

To a certain degree, We all seek, life’s purpose and meaning, love, peace and joy, and knowledge, wealth and power…

Position your daily actions so time is working for instead of against you.

In the end, it all comes down to the art of breathing.

Forty-five percent of Iraqi citizens think it is morally okay to attack American troops.

As long as you have more cash flowing in than flowing out, your investment is a good investment.

The whole world is waiting. The whole world needs you.

Your heart will always tell you what’s working and what’s not.

The two things we all want so desperately — glory and relationship — can coexist only with God.