Phil the Plumber
Glass had to take on a lot of odd jobs to support himself in the 1960s and ’70s. One day he was installing a dishwasher in a loft in SoHo when he looked up to see Time magazine art critic Robert Hughes staring at him. “But you’re Philip Glass!” he said. “What are you doing here?” Glass replied that it was obvious that he was installing Hughes’s new dishwasher. “But you’re an artist!” Hughes shouted. Glass answered that he was also a plumber and could Hughes please go away so he could get back to work.
You Talkin’ To Me?
Shortly after the New York premiere of Einstein on the Beach, Glass was driving a taxi. A well-dressed woman got into the cab, looked at his name, and said in some surprise, “Young man, do you realize you have the same name as a very famous composer?”
