65 Quotes by Philip Glass

I consider the first 20 performances just learning the piece. Think about it this way: If you think about a pianist who plays a Schubert sonata through his whole lifetime - if you listen to Rubenstein or Horowitz playing their repertoire later in their life, you understand the richness with which they play that music, and how differently they must have played it when they were younger.

I've been called a minimalist composer for more than 30 years, and while I've never really agreed with the description, I've gotten used to it.

I always knew what I wanted to do and I did it.

The work I've done is the work I know, and the work I do is the work I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing.

If you don't have a basis on which to make the choice, then you don't have a style at all. You have a series of accidents.

I'm interested in what happens to music when other people use it. Whereas there are composers who don't like anyone to touch their music, I think people should because they do things I can't think of.

If you remember your lineage, you will never feel lonely.

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.

What you hear depends on how you focus your ear. We're not talking about inventing a new language, but rather inventing new perceptions of existing languages.