It’s all just music.
Bryce Dessner Interviews Philip Glass

DESSNER: In terms of composers, there are people like Schubert, who was such a master of song, or people like Beethoven, who wrote these huge symphonies. But you seem to be able to do these incredibly beautiful small pieces like Mad Rush [1979] or »Closing« from Glassworks [1982], or even yesterday, I was looking at your fifth piano étude, which is just this perfect little piece. But you write these things that sound so effortless and immediate and emotional. But then, obviously, some of your most famous works are these monumental achievements like Einstein or Satyagraha [1980]. So I was kind of curious, when you’re talking about writing in a hotel room, how do you deal with the scale of these things?

GLASS: I don’t know that I make a big distinction between the big pieces and the little pieces, because I don’t experience them in that way. I mean, by the same token, you’re out touring with a band and then you’re writing string quartets, and in a funny way, isn’t it all the same, in a way? It’s all just music.