The thing is - fear can't hurt you any more than a dream.

My father was very musical, and music plays quite a large part in my life.

Worse than madness. Sanity.

I have a confession to make. The love affair of my life has been with the Greek language. I have now reached the age when it has occurred to me that I may have read some books for the last time. I suddenly thought that there are books I cannot bear not to read again before I die. One that stands out a mile is Homer's Iliad.

I think there might even come a time when I would read Virgil again. Ovid's Metamorphoses, perhaps, not because the music goes round and round and never comes out, but because it's an extraordinary picture of ceaseless change that never comes to an end.

What kind of human person has a favorite eraser?

He who rides the sea of the Nile must have sails woven of patience.