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

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

Music, uniquely among the arts, is both completely abstract and profoundly emotional. It has no power to represent anything particular or external, but it has a unique power to express inner states or feelings. Music can pierce the heart directly; it needs no mediation.

I cannot pretend i am not without fear.

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

The same areas which are active in listening to music are also active when you imagine music, and this includes the motor areas, too. That explains why earlier, even though I was only thinking of the mazurka, I was thinking in terms of movement.

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