"I'm thinking in terms of a point of departure, a field of action for performers to express an expressive need of mine which hopefully the context of music would convey."

"I really write for people."

"But nevertheless, it's music ultimately that matters in opera, and opera is a piece of music reaching out as a vision in sound reaching out to the world."

"I've just simply used what I've used because of the great, great expressive potential of it."

"However, yes, especially as one gets older, you know, you really hope that your music will become more generally available, even though some of the performances might be riddled with faults."

"We need to open up the future. We also need to keep everything valuable from the past."

"Well, let me, first of all, say, that as a microtonal composer, I've never been much of a theorist."

"If you look at the timing of many of the Greek dramas from the theatrical point of view, it's all off, and I think the reason for that is that music played a very important part."

"I think the composer and production staff of an opera have a real responsibility to use visual elements of all kinds to make clear to the American audience, at any rate, exactly what is going on."

"I think a lot of composers get into trouble just making up a plot and expecting an audience to follow that."

"I think one of the greatest enemies in the use of technology, however, is the idea that if you use the technology you have to throw other things out of the window."

"The way that I got involved with microtonal music was, frankly, through jazz."

"Well, the very best operas are the ones written by the very best composers."

"We need it to capture the energy of contemporary life."

"I want the audience to be so involved in the sweep of the music."

"In other words, I think that if an audience listens to something as an experience of how in tune it is or something of that kind, that the whole point is somehow being missed, and the music has failed."

"Well, opera began with an intent to resuscitate Greek drama, that is, modern opera as we know it."

"It's not important to me to found a school; it's not important to me to have disciples."

"We need to have as broad a range as possible, because life itself has that kind of range."

"I think I was first to do live performances on a modern electronic sound synthesizer."

"What's important for me is to communicate the vision that I have in sound with the audience that's hearing it."

"Nevertheless, one doesn't have time to think, oh, well, this is a quarter tone sharp, or flat."