I've been working in theater, really, since about 1965. I started working with the Mabou Mines about then, and in a way I've always worked in the theater, but it's never been a main part of my work. And it wasn't until Einstein that I kind of shifted into high gear with theater, working with Bob, with Bob Wilson. And since then I find it a very attractive form to work in. It's just an extension of my work.

Philip Glass

Categorized in : Way Gears Bob

I don't know what I'm doing and it's the not knowing that makes it interesting.

Philip Glass

creativity knowing interesting

The problem with listening, of course, is that we don't. There's too much noise going on in our heads, so we never hear anything. The inner conversation simply never stops. It can be our voice or whatever voices we want to supply, but it's a constant racket. In the same way we don't see, and in the same way we don't feel, we don't touch, we don't taste.

Philip Glass

voice too-much listening

You practice and you get better. It's very simple.

Philip Glass

get-better simple practice

A new language requires a new technique. If what you're saying doesn't require a new language, then what you're saying probably isn't new.

Philip Glass

technique language ifs

You get up early in the morning and you work all day. That’s the only secret.

Philip Glass

up-early secret morning

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.

Philip Glass

done knows

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.

Philip Glass

focus listening talking

What I've noticed is that people who love what they do, regardless of what that might be, tend to live longer.

Philip Glass

might people

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.

Philip Glass

bases style choices

There's almost no content in terms of language at all. I don't like using language to convey meaning. I'd rather use images and music.

Philip Glass

term language use

I travel the world, and I'm happy to say that America is still the great melting pot - maybe a chunky stew rather than a melting pot at this point, but you know what I mean.

Philip Glass

mean america travel

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.

Philip Glass

minimalist used years

What came to me as a revelation was the use of rhythm in developing an overall structure in music.

Philip Glass

revelations structure use

It doesn't need to be imagined, it needs to be written down.

Philip Glass

written needs

I shift between mediums very frequently. Instead of taking a break from writing, I just write in a different medium or in a different way or for a different purpose, so that I don't actually stop writing - I just go to something else. Like going from a big symphony to a piano piece is great and very refreshing, I find. And then going from that to a big concerto, and then having to go out and play.

Philip Glass

symphony play writing

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

Philip Glass

lineage lonely remember

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.

Philip Glass

use people thinking

Traditions are imploding and exploding everywhere - everything is coming together, for better or worse, and we can no longer pretend were all living in different worlds because were on different continents.

Philip Glass

different together world

Akhnaten is kind of a dark, kind of mysterious character. We don't know a lot about him - a lot of information on him was lost. But he obviously was a kind of iconoclast of him time. I guess I'm attracted to people like that. Like [Albert] Einstein also, who radically changed our way of thinking about the world we live in.

Philip Glass

dark character thinking

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

Philip Glass

wanted