My theory is that music is good, it's the only religion that delivers the goods. And anybody who wants to hear any kind of music is entitled to hear that music because it's good for you – it makes you feel good. If you like it, go for it. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean anything – it's a matter of personal taste.

Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny. 'Be-Bop Tango'

People today are still living off the table scraps of the sixties. They are still being passed around—the music and the ideas. (Feb. 13, 1992)

The disgusting stink of a too loud electric guitar; now that's my idea of a good time.

Modern music is a sick puppy.

Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.

All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff.

If people stop copying my music, I should start to worry.

The creation and destruction of harmonic and 'statistical' tensions is essential to the maintenance of compositional drama. Any composition (or improvisation) which remains consonant and 'regular' throughout is, for me, equivalent to watching a movie with only 'good guys' in it, or eating cottage cheese.

A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians.

I'll tell you what classical music is -- for those of you who don't know. Classical music is this music that was written by a bunch of dead people a long time ago. And it's formula music, the same as top forty music is formula music. In order to have a piece be classical, it has to conform to academic standards that were the current norms of that day and age ... I think that people are entitled to be amused, and entertained. If they see deviations from this classical norm, it's probably good for their mental health.