If you listen to the great Beatle records, the earliest ones where the lyrics are incredibly simple. Why are they still beautiful? Well, they're beautifully sung, beautifully played, and the mathematics in them is elegant. They retain their elegance.

Deindustrialization that I have written about for 40 years left a good part of the American public behind.

Hey man, did you see that? His body hit the street with such a beautiful thud.

What you were singing about was believable and convincing, that's the key to a great singer.

An unfulfilled life makes a hard man.

Some guys they just give up living, and start dying little by little, piece by piece.

Because we lived in the presence of the church and the convent and the rectory and the school 24-7. And this was an enormous cornerstone in the lives of my entire family. They were all pretty serious Catholic churchgoers.