Adams once claimed that originality wasn't an urgent concern for him the way it was necessary for the minimalists, and compared his position to that of Gustav Mahler, J. S. Bach, and Johannes Brahms, who "were standing at the end of an era and were embracing all of the evolutions that occurred over the previous thirty to fifty years."
Adams hævdede engang, at originalitet ikke var et presserende problem for ham på den måde, det var for minimalisterne, og sammenlignede sig med Gustav Mahler, Johann Sebastian Bach og Johannes Brahms, som "were standing at the end of an era and were embracing all of the evolutions that occurred over the previous thirty to fifty years" ("stod ved slutningen af en æra og indoptog alle de udviklinger, der havde fundet sted i løbet af de foregående tredive til halvtreds år").