Anyone who composes and conducts at the same time is immediately suspect, because he must be faking one or the other.

With American orchestras, in particular, because they play in such huge halls, getting a true pianissimo is very hard.

There is such a suspicion in today's world of people who do more than one thing, who aren't specialized.

I don't believe in an annual dose of film music for the sake of it being film music. If we program film music, it will be because there is a real artistic reason for doing so.

I've learned a lot from the masters of orchestration, like Ravel and Stravinsky.

When we're at the end of The Rite of Spring or of a Bruckner symphony, I want people to feel the music physically.