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.
My religion is nature. That’s what arouses those feelings of wonder and mysticism and gratitude in me.
People will make a life in their own terms, whether they are deaf or colorblind or autistic or whatever. And their world will be quite as rich and interesting and full as our world.
The past which is not recoverable in any other way is embedded, as if in amber, in the music, and people can regain a sense of identity...
Language, that most human invention, can enable what, in principle, should not be possible. It can allow all of us, even the congenitally blind, to see with another person’s eyes.
It is up to me now to choose how to live out the months that remain to me.
Much more of the brain is devoted to movement than to language. Language is only a little thing sitting on top of this huge ocean of movement.
There is only one cardinal rule: One must always listen to the patient.
We see with the eyes, but we see with the brain as well. And seeing with the brain is often called imagination.
I am a man of vehement disposition, with violent enthusiasms, and extreme immoderation in all my passions.
We speak not only to tell other people what we think, but to tell ourselves what we think. Speech is a part of thought.
Music is part of being human.
Music has a bonding power; it’s primal social cement.
I often feel that life is about to begin, only to realize it is almost over.
Creativity involves the depth of a mind, and many, many depths of unconsciousness.
Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears – it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear.
I am now face to face with dying. But I am not finished with living.
One might say that science itself, and civilization and art, are all about different orderings of the world – to contain it, and to make it in some sense intelligible, communicable. And bearable.
I have to live in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can.
In terms of brain development, musical performance is every bit as important educationally as reading or writing.