Stephen Hough

I love listening to things like those wonderful piano pieces of Stockhausen. It's just not my thing as a composer or performer, and thank goodness we're not obliged to be Modernist any more.

I love my painting - it fills me with passion. But it's not something I expect anyone else to love.

Why do people compose music? Why do people listen to music? When we go into a concert, we go into a place where we want to experience a sort of ecstasy, to come out of ourselves.

Brahms is life-changing every time. And though I love him, I can't say that about Mompou.

America has been central to my life.

Most people spend their life trying to get away from Catholicism. Amazingly, I chose it.

I like the extras in life. Concentrating on serious things doesn't mean you can't also enjoy the lighter ones.

Painting is just a hobby. I really don't think of it much more than that. But writing music and writing words... my life would feel as if it had a big hole if I took those away.

I wanted to be a monk at some time in my life, or a priest, so there was a kind of reflex quite early on not to be attached to anything that might be taken away.

Life is an incurable disease leading to death, but it's also an unrequested gift, which, if we can manage to keep giving it away to others, can keep giving back everything to us.

If you are not living in the same area when you are looking for property, it is a nightmare because you come down for a day or two, have appointments to see places, and have to be able to make instant decisions before flying off to St. Louis or somewhere.

I'd never thought about living in London until about 1999.