If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self—himself—he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it.

I think there is no culture in which music is not very important and central. That's why I think of us as a sort of musical species.

The power of music to integrate and cure. . . is quite fundamental. It is the profoundest nonchemical medication.

It seems that the brain always has to be active, and if the auditory parts of the brain are not getting sufficient input, then they may start to create hallucinatory sounds on their own. Although it is curious that they do not usually create noises or voices; they create music.

We speak not only to tell other people what we think, but to tell ourselves what we think. Speech is a part of thought.

We see with the eyes, but we see with the brain as well. And seeing with the brain is often called imagination.

If we wish to know about a man, we ask 'what is his story--his real, inmost story?'--for each of us is a biography, a story. Each of us is a singular narrative, which is constructed, continually, unconsciously, by, through, and in us--through our perceptions, our feelings, our thoughts, our actions; and, not least, our discourse, our spoken narrations. Biologically, physiologically, we are not so different from each other; historically, as narratives--we are each of us unique.