The human brain can soften as a result of incessant listening to music with an intent to commit prose.

It might be argued that genuine spontaneity is not really possible or desirable so long as printed scores of great works exist. All modern musicians are, for better or worse, prisoners of Gutenberg.

On the subject of wild mushrooms, it is easy to tell who is an expert and who is not: The expert is the one who is still alive.

The more disastrous the mishaps the simpler the reviewing task.

Next to the writer of real estate advertisements, the autobiographer is the most suspect of prose artists.

[Rubinstein was] a fountain from which music spouted, not a recitalist.

Real folk music long ago went to Nashville and left no known survivors.

The irrepressible spirit that made his playing seem like good conversation is the Rubinstein legacy for pianists, if they can pick up their heads from the keyboard long enough to claim it.

Create/add value to your life on a daily basis

And yet he found comfort in the absence of telling.

Read properly, fewer books than a hundred would suffice for a liberal education. Read superficially, the British Museum Library might still leave the student a barbarian.

Don't it make my brown eyes blue?

A leaf cannot return to the bud - bluestar to fireheart and greystripe

Pause and remember - It is never too late to begin again, to forgive someone, to have a dream, to meet someone or to love yourself. It is never too late!

The tenacity of life is mind-boggling. We keep finding it where no one thought it could be.

We live with a future where every three or four months, we have to question everything. You think you could be the best, or that you're nothing and you don't know what you're doing. It is exhausting.

We've got to see a state where the Afghan government can handle its own day-to-day security.

It is amazing how many people seem to think that the government exists to turn their prejudices into law.