What I like best about music is when time goes away.
I always felt a weird obligation to be adventurous.
You can't beat a good sonnet, and you can write a sonnet without being married to the damned thing.
Maybe the hardest lesson is the one I have to learn over and over again, that each story is its own animal, that every story I write is going to come only with difficulty.
There were a lot of beautiful, thin people out there driving nice cars. It was a whole different experience being in L. A.
I didn't actually figure out how to get guidance, so I just decided to go to school at University of Southern California because they sent me a glossy brochure.
I loved writing for the school newspaper. I liked to report and interview people, but I really liked to write columns, funny columns.
I became a set designer for opera.
Whenever I become discouraged (which is on alternate Tuesdays, between three and four) I lift my spirits by remembering: The artists are on our side! I mean those poets and painters, singers and musicians, novelists and playwrights who speak to the world in a way that is impervious to assault because they wage the battle for justice in a sphere which is unreachable by the dullness of ordinary political discourse.
We, the monarchs, are undoubtedly constants in a constantly changing world. Because we have always been there, but also because we do not get involved in everyday politics. We are aware of the political changes in our societies, but we don't comment on them. This is where we assume a unique position.
Blasphemy? No, it is not blashphemy. If God is as vast as that, he is above blasphemy; if he is as little as that, He is beneath it.