I always write the pieces I want to write.
Harrison Birtwistle

I didn't have a record player.
Harrison Birtwistle

I don't have ideas so much as there are things which constantly evolve... there are various threads or layers, if you like, which change.
Harrison Birtwistle

I don't think there is much American music.
Harrison Birtwistle

I think music has gone through a period of something very severe, rather radical, rather the way painting did with cubism.
Harrison Birtwistle

I think there are influences that you open the door to, and influences that come under the door.
Harrison Birtwistle

I wrote music as soon as I knew notation.
Harrison Birtwistle

I'm not a music lover in the sense that I look for something to have on. I've never had that attitude to music.
Harrison Birtwistle

I'm not an architectural composer.
Harrison Birtwistle

In the end it doesn't matter what you do.
Harrison Birtwistle

It's the irrational things that interest me.
Harrison Birtwistle

Minimalism now is a reaction to what came before. It's absolutely of its time. Music moved into the set theory thing, and moved out of it.
Harrison Birtwistle

Music is such a problem in the time it takes.
Harrison Birtwistle

My attitude to writing is like when you do wallpapering, you remember where all the little bits are that don't meet. And then your friends say: It's terrific!
Harrison Birtwistle

My operas and my theatre works are very formal pieces.
Harrison Birtwistle

My operas usually come from musical ideas rather than ideas about subject matter.
Harrison Birtwistle

One thing I've tried to do in writing music is take on very basic things, very archetypal things.
Harrison Birtwistle

People say my music is English. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's not me writing English music, but that English music is becoming more like me.
Harrison Birtwistle

The opera tells the story with all the built-in contradictions and from many different angles.
Harrison Birtwistle

The piece that had a large influence on me was Turangalila.
Harrison Birtwistle