“He was at once severe and beautiful, and the more the played, the more I felt surrounded by that cushion as well, as if I could fall and never hit the ground, as long as he was playing.”

“And she was not beautiful asleep. Her expression slack and not angelic. The very ordinariness of it so beautiful he felt a yearning to be something more than he was or could be. And as good a player as he was, he knew as he turned on the reel to reel and hugged the Fender once again that nothing he composed would ever be as beautiful as her ordinary sleep.Watching her he played the music of her sleeping. And by surrendering made something beautiful.”

“The darkness enveloped us. All I could hear was the violin and it was as if Juliek's soul had become the bow. He was playing his life...He played that which he would never play again.”

“Very well. He'd lighten up. As a matter of fact, he felt as light as the bubbly froth that flew from the lips of the waves. Whatever else his long, unprecedented life might have been, it had been fun. Fun! If others should find that appraisal shallow, frivolous, so be it. To him, it seemed now to largely have been some form of play. And he vowed that in the future he would strive to keep that sense of play more in mind, for he'd grown convinced that play--more than piety, more than charity or vigilance--was what allowed human beings to transcend evil.”

“Wayside school is falling down, falling down, falling down,Wayside school is falling down my fair lady.Kids go splat as they hit the ground, hit the ground, hit the ground,Kids go splat as the hit the ground my fair lady.Broken bones and blood and gore, blood and gore, blood and gore,Broken bones and blood and gore my fair lady.We don't have to go to school no more, school no more, school no more,We don't have to go to school no more my fair lady.”

“A wise man once said that all human activity is a form of play. And the highest form of play is the search for Truth, Beauty and Love. What more is needed? Should there be a ‘meaning’ as well, that will be a bonus? If we waste time looking for life’s meaning, we may have no time to live — or to play.”