I just love music - by no stretch of the imagination am I professionally competent.

Dear though the reader might be, I'd be silly to cater to what the reader wanted.

In a painting, you can't make out whether the artist painted the left eye before the right eye. In Chinese calligraphy, you can see the progression of the artist's stroke.

I sometimes seem to myself to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias.

Those books of mine that are remunerative - I'm not talking about poetry here - take years to write, and I am never sure they'll be successful. So writing is a risk in more senses than one.

All you who sleep tonight Far from the ones you love, No hand to left or right, An emptiness above-- Know that you aren't alone. The whole world shares your tears, Some for two nights or one, And some for all your years.

Don't put things off till it's too late. You are the DJ of your fate.