“It is not important what happens where; Where we fall or rise, What we conquer or lose, How big or small we are.”

“But we fall only that we might rise, Alfred. All of us fall; all of us, as you say, screw up. Falling is not important. It is how we get up after the fall that's important.”

“What is important is not what happens to us, but how we respond to what happens to us.”

“Music helps us understand where we have come from but, more importantly, what has happened to us.”

“When pondering how the past affected us, we rarely look for OUR effect on it. We think about what we were up against versus what we stood for. We remember what we feared but not what we dreamed. We ponder how much we were loved versus how much we loved. We think, why did all that happen to me? What did I get out of it? Where will it lead me? When perhaps we should wonder, what did I make happen? What did I give? Where will I direct myself now?”

“I'm not interested in how things were, or how we ended up where we are now. What interests me is what we are now and what we will be.”