I am a man of vehement disposition, with violent enthusiasms, and extreme immoderation in all my passions.

Biologically, physiologically, we are not so different from each other; historically, as narratives - we are each of us unique.

For 'wellness', naturally, is no cause for complaint - people relish it, they enjoy it, they are at the furthest pole from complaint. People complain of feeling ill - not well ... Thus, though a patient will scarcely complain of being 'very well', they may become suspicious if they feel 'too well'.

When I was five, I am told, and asked what my favorite things in the world were, I answered, smoked salmon and Bach.

I had never thought about what it might mean to be deaf, to be deprived of language, or to have a remarkable language (and community and culture) of one’s own. Up to this point, I had mostly thought and written about the problems of individuals–here I was to encounter an entire community.

I am a man of vehement disposition, with violent enthusiasms, and extreme immoderation in all my passions.

I suspect that music has qualities both of speech and writing - partly built in, partly individually constructed - and this goes on all through one's life.