Childhood Is A Tricky Business. Usually, Something

Most Children - I Know I Did When I Was A Kid - Fantasize Another Set Of Parents. Or Fantasize No Parents. They Don't Tell Their Real Parents About That - You Don't Want To Tell Mom And Dad. Kids Lead A Very Private Life. And I Was A Typical Child, I Think. I Was A Liar.

A Whole New World Of Italian Music Was Springing Up, And [giuseppe] Verdi Was Seen As Old. Boito Got Verdi All Excited About The Possibility Of Doing Another Opera, Another Kind Of Opera. In Fact, Verdi Composed His Two Best Operas, Otello And Falstaff, In His Eighties.

As A Kid, All I Thought About Was Death. But You Can't Tell Your Parents That.

That's What Art Is. You Don't Make Up Stories. You Live Your Life.

If Life Is So Critical, If Anne Frank Could Die, If My Friend Could Die, Children Were As Vulnerable As Adults, And That Gave Me A Secret Purpose To My Work, To Make Them Live. Because I Wanted To Live. I Wanted To Grow Up.