Finally, Ultimately, You Write Music For Yourself.

It Takes About A Year To Write An Opera For Me, But Not A Really A Year Of Writing. I'm Touring At The Same Time, And I'm Playing, Sometimes Doing Smaller Projects.[the Opera] Akhnaten Fits In With Gandhi And Einstein, So That Forms A Trilogy In A Way.i Picked People Who Were These Kind Of Larger Than Life Characters, Who Kind Of Changed The World They Lived In By Almost The Force Of Their Personality And Their Inventiveness. People That I Think Not Only Do I Admire But I Think They're Admirable People.

I Don't Think I'm Capable Of Making Radical Changes, But Over A Period Of Four Or Five Years You Can Perceive Very Big Changes, And They Seem Rather Small At The Time.

I Think It's A Great Handicap To Be Discovered At An Early Age. I Didn't Have That Burden Of Early Success. I Had The Much More Livable And Durable Career Where Success Comes Late, And Comes Slowly, And You Ease Into It. So By The Time It Comes, You're Ready To Deal With It.

My Biggest Problem About Writing Is Whenever I Write Piano Pieces, Because I Then Have To Learn To Play Them, Which Is Sometimes Not So Easy.

So The Real Drama For Me Is Balancing Live Performances And Writing, And One Of The Ways I Balance It Is I Write In Hotel Rooms. That's Not Exactly Balancing. Actually, Writing In Hotel Rooms Means That I'm Refusing To Deal With The Problem.