The French Revolution is the ultimate modernist statement. Destroy everything. Don't build on the past. There is no past.

I always conceive a piece as a different set of challenges.

I find respect for a mediocre British composer, as opposed to a really good American, ridiculous because they automatically respect a composer if he's from England.

Jazz is not the popular culture. Jazz is in the same position in our culture as classical music. A very small minority of people really love it.

They do not want people committing violence, either in their community or in the name of their faith, and so some of our most productive relationships are with people who see things and tell us things who happen to be Muslim.

I don't have friends, and it's hard for me to make new friends. Right now, the people that are in my life are the people that I work with.

I sacrificed a lot, in terms of friendship and family, from working so much at such a young age, but I wouldn't be where I am if I hadn't.

When the game is finished, it's completely finished. I'm with my kids. Sometimes people say to me, 'Oh, did you see the game?' and I say, 'No, I didn't see the game'. I watch if my friends are playing or my brothers. But not always.