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

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.

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.

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 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.

I don't think I could ever work in such a blatantly hierarchical corporate setting. I know that everyone in this world is not equal, but I can't bear environments that make this truth so obvious.

Equanimity can be hard to talk about.

Most of us think too much of speech, which is but the shell of thought.

My favorite time to dance is at, like, wedding receptions, when it's all ages and everyone seems to be having fun.

Remember that the biggest thing you could do today is a small act of kindness.

The name of Khomeini will always remain in the new chapter of Iranian history.

The horrifying thing is that nearly half of America seems in synch with xenophobia and race-baiting.

The whole story of human and personal progress is an unmitigated tale of denials today-denials of rest, denials or repose and comfort and ease and pleasure-that tomorrow may be richer.

I was so surprised. Then again, I was so relaxed in the water, it felt amazing

I don't do the running commentary as the movie's playing. I think you should be able to watch the movie without listening to me talk while the movies playing.