The thing that makes reading and writing suspect in the eyes of the market economy is that it's not corrupted.

When you're sure of what you're looking at, look harder.

Reading is the last act of secular prayer.

Music forecasts the past, recalls the future. Now and then the difference falls away, and in one simple gift of circling sound, the ear solves the scrambled cryptogram. One abiding rhythm, present and always, and you're free. But a few measures more, and the cloak of time closes back around you.

The job of taste was to thin the insane torrent of human creativity down to manageable levels. But the job of appetite was never to be happy with taste.

For me, university was just awful because it was closing one door after the other of all these candy shops of professional possibilities.

I don't mind arguing with myself. It's when I lose that it bothers me.