Scriabin slept with Chopin under his pillow, and I slept with Wagner under mine. I could not concentrate on memorizing Bach fugues, but I had all of 'Gotterdammerung' in my fingers.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I got obsessed with classical music, I got obsessed with Chopin, with playing the piano.
When I was 5 or 6, I was messing around with the piano, and I listened to everything from Chopin to boogie-woogie.
After working with Ligeti I began to hear Brahms and Beethoven differently.
When I was younger, I used to do that a lot: I would hear a part of a song that would really relax me and then put it on repeat. That would send me to sleep. It was quite obvious classical music, people like Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel.
I slept in van Gogh's bed. I worked in the room where he painted. I saw the place where he was cared for when he cut off his ear. I lived in the jail cell where he stayed. And I looked out the window. You remember that picture of the cornfields through the bars? That was what I saw.
My stepfather was quite into opera, but he'd play it when he was in a bad mood, so you'd hear this boom through the floor, Wagner, and you'd feel nervous.
I couldn't sleep for nights on end, as my brain felt like there were thoughts colliding within it; I obsessed over small details, from saving pennies and polishing each one of them to washing my clothing over and over in the washing machine.
Hilda and I slept alongside each other fully dressed, head to feet.
I remember I used to sleep on my records. In a room with no furniture. I remember I used to sleep in my car.
I used to get into the government car and switch on Chopin or someone I liked to hear at the end of a parliamentary day.