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

Art is not only about angst.

Eighty percent of my pieces gravitate towards an A, as a tonal thing, not at the beginning, but somewhere in it.

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

I have tremendous respect for film composers.

I think art can reflect tragedy.

I think it's good for the composer to teach because you always have new students and you have to begin at the beginning and make things clear.

I'm glad I won it because when I grew up the Pulitzer was the award that every composer wanted and I was like that too.

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.

What I think of as style - and I've gotten to this over years of really thinking about it - is that style is the unconscious choices I make.

You become a great composer when you win a Pulitzer. But I think that now it's a completely meaningless award.

I don't think that the Pulitzer should be given the way it is. I think the competition should be anonymous. I think completely different people would win it if the names were taken off because a lot of it is done on relationships and names.

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.

The structural thinking I use in the concert hall is unnecessary to most film projects, and most film composers make better use of the enormous range of pop and other materials and techniques required of them than I probably would, faced with the same challenge.

After high school, I had $2,000 saved, and I packed everything I could into my '95 Nissan Sentra with no air-conditioning, and I drove out to L.A.

I just love drama. I love the idea of exploring relationships, whatever they may be. That's fun for me.

I remember thinking, in Kansas my name will be Evett - which is my middle name. I didn't want to explain to anyone how to say Em-a-yat-zee.

I'm pretty much going to say what I feel.

We left Germany when I was 11.

Give up as much as you're willing to receive back and give yourself, if that makes any sense. Whatever that is, don't expect more from a person than what you're willing to give, but give it knowing that you're giving it - it's been given, so don't expect anything else.