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I'm not an intellectual composer.

A female piano player is always pretty cool to me.

I consider myself a composer.

I cannot listen to Beethoven or Mahler or Chopin or Bach when I write because those composers require you stop what you are doing and listen.

Playing the Beethoven symphonies, for example, is a consummate experience for a musician because Beethoven speaks so directly to who we are as people.

I don't really call myself a composer.

I occasionally play works by contemporary composers and for two reasons. First to discourage the composer from writing any more and secondly to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven.

All great composers of the past spent most of their time studying. Feeling alone won't do the job. A man also needs technique.

To me, the piano in itself is an orchestra.