If music could be translated into human speech, it would no longer need to exist.

If you read reviews of concerts, the word 'creative' comes up all the time. However, performers playing music usually aren't creative. Critics might say they are, but they're just playing another persons work. They didn't create it.

If a composer could state in words what being a composer means, he would no longer need to be a composer.

If music could be translated into human speech, it would no longer need to exist.

All men are forced into one of two categories: those with eleven fingers and those without.

The Great don't innovate, they fertilize seeds planted by lackeys, they leave to others the inhaling of the flowers whose roots they've manured. A deceptive memory may be the key to their originality.

If asked to list my ten favorite American fiction writers, Gail Godwin would be among them. In this, her latest . . . she evokes in a short book the long married life of two artists. Evenings at Five is a strong tale of love-after-death.