Robert Ashley

“The idea of an opera for television has to do with the fact that you can get very close to the person.”

“Television is the only truly populist medium.”

“I decided that what I was going to do from then on was just what I wanted to do.”

“I wanted to invent a new kind of opera, an American opera. The idea of American opera has been a problem for 150 years because of the problem of the language.”

“My operas are about a kind of landscape of characters and events. They’re not about a particular story, like a story that you would tell your friend.”

“I always thought of myself as an amateur. I'm a composer. And an amateur is someone who does it for the love of it.”

“Language is the most amazing, mysterious, and magical thing we have.”