Given her deafness, the auditory part of the brain, deprived of its usual input, had started to generate a spontaneous activity of its own, and this took the form of musical hallucinations, mostly musical memories from her earlier life. The brain needed to stay incessantly active, and if it was not getting its usual stimulation..., it would create its own stimulation in the form of hallucinations.
Oliver SacksMusic originally had a social function. You were in church, in a concert hall, a marching band; you were dancing. I'm concerned that music could be too separated from its roots and just become a pleasure-giving experience, like a drug.
Oliver SacksI am a man of vehement disposition, with violent enthusiasms, and extreme immoderation in all my passions.
Oliver SacksElements and birthdays have been intertwined for me since boyhood, when I learned about atomic numbers.
Oliver Sacks