Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings.

Staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps.

He believed that life, true life, was something that was stored in music. True life was kept safe in the lines of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin while you went out in the world and met the obligations required of you. Certainly he knew (though did not completely understand) that opera wasn't for everyone, but for everyone he hoped there was something. The records he cherished, the rare opportunities to see a live performance, those were the marks by which he gauged his ability to love.

I am a totally public person.

Keeping people safe is a story we tell ourselves.

I know that there are people out there who believe we should get rid of all guns.

Fiction is always really a labor.