Talking about a materialistic thing, I get about 13 times more royalties from Europe than I do from America.

Yes, I get a report from BMI about the frequency of performances, and it is very surprising. They played one of my most advanced pieces, and one of my most unusual ones on the radio.

The Third Quartet I made the instruments in pairs - Two different pairs - Violin and viola, and violin and cello. They played very different things from each other all through the whole piece.

These wealthy people were very interested in contemporary music. They wanted to help diffuse it and get it to be known to other people.

I prefer to write books for children instead of reading them. But I do strongly believe in childhood and in respecting childhood innocence. I don't like books for children that deal with adult themes.

When people learn that I'm a qualified primary school teacher, I'm often met with surprise and a list of questions, including, 'How do the children react? How do you do it?' Children are some of the most open and inclusive individuals. It's often us adults who have difficulties in accepting difference.

The French talk about education, the education of their children. They don't talk about raising kids. They talk about education. And that has nothing to do with school. It's this kind of broad description of how you raise children and what you teach them.

I never had any film training. I went to Northwestern. I studied education and theater. So it was all theater training.