“When I'm scoring something like a string quartet, it's all notated mus...” — Bryce Dessner Quote

“When I'm scoring something like a string quartet, it's all notated music, so it's meticulously written in the score, which is very different than doing things by ear.”

“I don't labour over my lead guitar solos; they're better just caught in the moment.”

“David Harrington asked me to write a piece for Kronos Quartet for a performance in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. I live just two blocks from the park and spend many mornings running around it. The park for me symbolizes much of what I love about New York, especially the stunning diversity of Brooklyn with its myriad cultures and communities.”

“I play by ear - I'm self-taught. And so everything I do is through that technique.”

“The eye is a very quick instrument, much quicker than the ear. The eye gets it immediately.”

“I've grown up with a piano in the house, and that's where I started to be able to learn things by ear. Guitar kind of happened, and I was using it just for writing at first. Then, I was writing so much that I began to realise that I knew how to play, and that's when I started getting nerdy about it.”