The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do.

You write in order to change the world ... if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change it.

You took the best, so why not take the rest?

Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.

I had never before thought of how awful the relationship must be between the musician and his instrument. He has to fill it, this instrument, with the breath of life, his own. He has to make it do what he wants it to do. And a piano is just a piano. It's made out of so much wood and wires and little hammers and big ones, and ivory. While there's only so much you can do with it, the only way to find this out is to try; to try and make it do everything.

There is something terribly radical about believing that one's own experience and images are important enough to speak about, much less to write about and to perform

I think white gay people feel cheated because they were born, in principle, in a society in which they were supposed to be safe. The anomaly of their sexuality puts them in danger, unexpectedly.