I expected the illegible and the deeply buried in me to be read as if carved on my forehead, just as I expected the obvious and the ill-concealed to be hidden from view.

The alarm in the morning? Well, I have an old tape of Carlo Maria Giulini conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in a perfectly transcendent version in Shubert's seventh symphony. And I've rigged it up so that at exactly 7:30 every morning it falls from the ceiling onto my face.

I can understand the Greek idea that there are these these principles of lightening or of war or of wisdom and to embody them, to personify them into a Athena or Aries or whichever god you want makes enormous sense.

How can I tell you what I think until I've heard what I'm going to say?

All the big words -virtue, justice, truth, ...- are dwarfed by the greatness of kindness

It's extremely unlucky to be superstitious, for no other reason than it is always unlucky to be colossally stupid.

There is so much we can learn from TV. It's a window on the world.