I've always been a composer dependent on texts.

I've always been a composer dependent on texts.

Well, American composers are the best composers. At this time in the world, we are where the energy is. We are the most diverse, the most iconoclastic, the most maverick, and the most skillful.

When I first wrote for orchestra, I didn't realize, when you have 20 people playing a violin line, that is very different than one person playing that line.

I began like all composers, writing for small groups. Chamber groups.

A maverick feels like he has no choice however difficult his choice of expression. In my case, it was going backwards into tonality. It seemed so wrong. The idea that progress is going into the past in a new way is very strange, even though there are precedents.

Composers love to write for symphony orchestras because the symphony is the Rolls Royce of musical instruments.

Staid middle age loves the hurricane passions of opera.

President Obama is a big supporter of keeping the Internet open. During his presidential campaign, he pledged his support to net neutrality repeatedly.

It has been a motto of mine my whole life - just be yourself.

Most startup entrepreneurs unnecessarily spend half their time and give up half their equity in search of funding from angel investors and venture capitalists. Tens of millions of dollars are available to them for free from partners who not only don't want their equity, they don't even want to be paid back.

I'm someone who does not like a bunker mentality and does not like groupthink.

He who thanks but with the lips thanks but in part; The full, the true thanksgiving comes from the heart.

At 69, I got the girl! And it wasn't a 68-year-old girl, either.

Pounding an edge to sharpness will not make it last.

Military deployments have never been something to enjoy but the consequence of the actions the shared nature of the sacrifices and the nobility of the cause are invigorating. To be clear Im not talking about the killing and the death rather the sense of purpose that pervades every action reaction and outcome.

I wonder if the course of narcissism through the ages would have been any different had Narcissus first peered into a cesspool. He probably did.

If you took a child in London and took their iPhone and took them somewhere else in the country, they'd probably not be able to find their way back. That's a shame.

Don't bottom fish.

We must return optimism to our parenting. To focus on the joys, not the hassles; the love, not the disappointments; the common sense, not the complexities.

All the women want to be with me, all the men want to be like me.

I made a few records here and there by default, but I wasn't ever comfortable in that role. I wasn't comfortable on stage. We'll see how it goes this time.

I guess my inspiration is this - I like to pretend that every story that ever happened to 'Batman' was real and is part of this one guy's life.

Insomniacs tend to fall into two general categories - those who give up and those who don't. I don't. I refuse to admit defeat by turning on the light. I will not try to read or watch a movie, thank you. Productivity is a crutch of the weak.

Markets are frequently ahead of, and often out of sync with, the economy.

Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.

A solid answer to everything is not necessary. Blurry concepts influence one to focus, but postulated clarity influences arrogance.

Seattle is a liberal city, its politics not so much blue (in the American, not the British, sense) as deep ultramarine, and its manners are studiously polite.

That's what the cat said to the canary when he swallowed him - 'You'll be all right.'

I love Calvin Klein underwear. That's the only kind of underwear I wear.

Wanderer, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more; wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking. By walking one makes the road, and upon glancing behind one sees the path. . .