I like the idea of imagining a sound and feeling a sound and then having it come out through your body, through an instrument. That's an important way to make music.

Strangely, the thing I listen to 75% of the time, when I'm exercising with my headphones on is English Tudor/Elizabethan music, so music from about 1450 to the early 1600's.

My work on hyper instruments started with simple instruments, like the piano.

The one obvious thing is that the devices are so good now that you can also see their limitations extremely well.

My message is to forget about dichotomies. The Brain Opera is an opera, even if it does not tell a story in the usual way. It is a psychological journey with voices - so I do consider it an opera.

Why does every society seem to want to make music when it often seems like kind of a frill.

Nobody talks about music as having intrinsic meaning, how it engages the mind.

Works of art should be stimulating. They should wake people up rather than acting like a sedative.

There's many reason music exists and we are beginning to no only understand that, but measure that.

There's just an incredibly rich and interesting relationship between our listening to music and the way our minds engage.

I did take composition lessons when I was in high school, so I wrote piano pieces. I wrote some chamber music. I don't think any of that was particularly interesting.

The power of choosing good and evil is within the reach of all.

Eighty per cent of teams who score first in matches go on to win them. But they may draw some - or occasionally lose.

Solemnity and a complete absence of irony also mark kitsch.

My earlier award was also based on a close collaborative effort.

... if a man really and truly believed that black was white, you might advise him to see an oculist, but you mustn't call him a liar.

When you write things down, they sometimes take you places you hadn't planned.

My family keeps me pretty grounded. Like if I try anything diva, they're like, 'Oh shut up. Go and do the dishwasher.'

When we ask for heaven, we are asking for stasis. A form of comfort that will last for eternity. Yes, that is what we all want, the way we understand happiness.

The future woman must have a life work and economic independence. She must have the right of motherhood at her own discretion.

My doctor told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.