When I left Europe in 1987 I did so with the thought that my relevance as a composition teacher would benefit from a certain cool distance to certain tendencies I had been observing for several years with increasing disquiet. – Brian Ferneyhough
Questioning the nature and implications of liminal instances necessarily involves failure, if only in the specifically technical sense of entering spaces where prevailing criteria of success scarcely apply. – Brian Ferneyhough
There would seem to be a limit, even for an art preoccupied with boundaries and transgressions, beyond which a work reaches its breaking point and becomes an actual failure, a mere experimentation. – Brian Ferneyhough
With respect to the respective French and German traditions you are no doubt correct, although I am reluctant to see individual achievement reduced to archetypes. – Brian Ferneyhough
If a guy is skilled at anything, thats attractive. Theres something very primal about that and, sure, it can be as simple as figuring out the tip quickly. Its really cool when a guy tips 20 percent quickly and effortlessly so that when the check comes, he opens it and signs his name and done. – Danica McKellar