A woman in the audience asked [Barack] Obama about her mother. Her mother was 101 years old and was in need of a certain kind of procedure. Her doctor didn't want to do it because of her age. However, another doctor did and told this woman there is a joy of life in this person. The woman asked President Obama how he would deal with this sort of thing, and Obama said we cannot consider the joy of life in this situation. He said I would advise her to take a pain killer. That is the essence of the President of the United States.

[Miranda Hentoff] was teaching once at Lincoln Center, and the hall was full of other professionals - musicians, professors, teachers. And she was explaining how [Béla] Bartok composed his second piano concerto. And she explained how the music was interwoven with the rhythms and what he had in his mind. And I was just stunned. This is a kid who used to work - on a piano with a cracked keyboard.

[People] felt good even though they didn't really know much about [Barack Obama] and may have had some doubts.

[George W.] Bush was led astray and we were led astray.

I was in the back of the book [in the The Reporter] doing music.

[Barack Obama] is a man who is causing us and will cause us a great deal of harm constitutionally and personally.

We disagree heavily on abortion [with Margot Hentoff].