I want the music to be ambiguous. Its tone gives you a context in which to start visualizing what you're feeling with the music.

I'm just not arbitrarily choosing to have five guitars play one type of thing. In that way there's a definite similarity between a symphony orchestra and the 100 guitar symphony.

I'm never happy with anything.

I liked rock music going back to the '60s, but I never ever had any desire to be a rock musician and when I started doing a band it was experimental music.

I think of myself of a primitivist. I have never had any of these electronic instruments and I have never had the slightest interest in using them. I use the computer as a tool, simply because it makes composing a lot faster. But I don't go on stage with a computer and make a lot of goofy sounds.

I like to read. I've become obsessed with fiction. And it's too bad: I'm a musician many people love and I myself am not part of the music scene.

Whatever works for the piece I'm thinking about is the way I write.

One hundred guitarists making lots of noise would not be something you'd want to listen to.

I really feel instrumental music can speak - can contain tremendous amounts of information - but it's speaking to your subconscious.

I'm constantly revising and updating a piece until it's finally recorded. Once it's recorded, then it's over.

It's a mysterious thing that a whole generation of young people can come up and see and understand things that previous generations weren't able to see or understand.

It can and will be a more powerful sound but the orchestra has far more potential for expressive power. When I hear a great rock band it can make me feel alive, but when I hear a great orchestra it can make me feel human.