At 11, I could say ‘I am sodium’ (Element 11), and now at 79, I am gold.

I was fascinated that one could have such perceptual changes, and also that they went with a certain feeling of significance, an almost numinous feeling. I'm strongly atheist by disposition, but nonetheless when this happened, I couldn't help thinking, 'That must be what the hand of God is like.'

The past which is not recoverable in any other way is embedded, as if in amber, in the music, and people can regain a sense of identity.

Memory is dialogic and arises not only from direct experience but from the intercourse of many minds.

Music evokes emotion and emotion can bring it's memory.

Sign language is the equal of speech, lending itself equally to the rigorous and the poetic, to philosophical analysis or to making love.

Music is...a fundamental way of expressing our humanity - and it is often our best medicine.