I think if you would like to describe composing as an act with one word, "slow" would be the word.

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.

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

What good is ye world when ye canst not livest hither.

The only thing that stands between a man and what he wants from life is often merely the will to try it and the faith to believe that it is possible.

I wanted so badly to have a backup plan for when I'm not performing anymore. Let's be realistic: it's not going to be like this forever.

I am sorry too," said Lupin. "Sorry I will never know [my son]... but he will know why I died and I hope he will understand I was trying to make a world in which he could live a happier life.

The Broadway audience is made up of a greater percentage of tourists now. There's not nearly as much variety and danger and challenge in what's being offered.

I like feeling a bit of an outcast where I am. I've always been that way. Somehow, I fit in by not fitting in.

I'm a tomboy! Even though I look all-girlie and act girlie, in reality at home I am such a tomboy. I like to mess around and hang out with my brothers, that is the most fun for me!

Out of the formless the forms appear.

The central challenge for any company, regardless of its size, is to keep doing a better job for its customers.

In the early days you have a tendency to intellectualize, but you're really just trying to sound smart and score with the chicks.