Elements and birthdays have been intertwined for me since boyhood, when I learned about atomic numbers.

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.

Every act of perception, is to some degree an act of creation, and every act of memory is to some degree an act of imagination.

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.

Eccentricity is like having an accent. It's what "other" people have.

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

If a man with a dog sits quietly enjoying music and smiling, his dog might sit down beside him and smile, too. But who knows whether the dog is having a comparable experience or whether the dog is simply happy that his master is happy.