If you're the type of person who has to fulfill your dreams you've gotta be resourceful to make sure you can do it. I came out to California when I was 21 thinking my New York credentials would take me all the way. I came back home a year later all dejected and a failure.

It's amazing how fast generations lose sight of other generations. One of the first things the young composers who come to work with me say is that they want to write music people will like instead of gaining their credentials by being rejected by the audience.