I try to turn a written thing, when I'm in trouble with it, into a spoken thing: I start imagining what I would say to someone if I were trying to tell the story or make the argument.

I think I'm more intensely opinionated when I speak; more agreeably balanced when I write.

Men choose Hamlet because every man sees himself as a disinherited monarch. Women choose Alice [in Wonderland] because every woman sees herself as the only reasonable creature among crazy people who think they are disinherited monarchs.

Daniel Levitin takes the most sophisticated ideas that exist about the brain and mind, applies them to the most emotionally direct art we have, our songs, and makes beautiful music of the two together.

Fanaticism comes in as many flavors as there are human beings.

Big writers become a kind of shared climate.

After all, spinning is its own reward. There wouldn't be carousels if it weren't so.