And the thing about a successful life is that a lot of the time, our ideas of what it would mean to live successfully are not our own. They're sucked in from other people; chiefly, if you're a man, your father, and if you're a woman, your mother. Psychoanalysis has been drumming home this message for about 80 years. No one's quite listening hard enough, but I very much believe it's true.

The only thing I can do is write. Everything else bores me.

我不相信运气，我相信准备遇到机会。

The passion to be reckoned upon is fear.

Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the minds, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good, just, and beautiful.