My whole childhood was filled with classical music and going to concerts of the New York Philharmonic and other New York ensembles and organizations, but interestingly, I didn’t become conscious of wanting to be a musician until I was about 11. I was a rather late starter.

I was playing in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra as principal horn. I was there for some 15 years – one of the most exciting and great musical periods in my life.

As long as I’m healthy and can keep going that’s what I’ll do.

I wanted to be a painter and an artist. And it’s interesting that in some of my later musical works, I refer so often and associate myself with works of art.

Many people think of me as a modernist, as a radical in music, you know, someone who’s always sort of at the avant-garde of musics, but I’m also quite a traditionalist.

I don’t hate work, composing is not work for me, it’s my pleasure; it’s my life. So why should I stop? If something is pleasurable and exciting and rewarding, why should one stop?

If we could ever find that moment, maybe thousands of years from now, where all the musics of the worlds would be communicating with each other, there would be no more wars, there would be peace.

Symphony musicians are not trained in improvising, certainly not in a jazz style.

If you mess around with jazz, you better have a good drummer and a good bass player.

Many people think of me as a modernist, as a radical in music, you know, someone who's always sort of at the avant-garde of musics, but I'm also quite a traditionalist.