Q: I understand that in your early days as a composer, you rented a Manhattan loft for 30 bucks.

A: It was down in the Fulton fish market. I paid $30 a month. My
friends paid $25, and they thought that I had betrayed the community by
allowing the rent to be pushed up that high. I was deeply apologetic
for having destabilized the neighborhood.

Q: People romanticize that era, the early sixties.
A: And well they might! You could eat a hearty lunch for about
50 cents—you know, beans and a roll and a cup of coffee. To support
that lifestyle, you had to work only two or three days a week. So it
really was a time when coming to New York and being an artist was not that difficult.

Q: Is it true that you didn’t make a dime off music until you were 40?