“Anything was better than Ezra learning to play the bassoon...”

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”

“The bassoon is one of my favorite instruments. It has a medieval aroma, like the days when everything used to sound like that. Some people crave baseball...I find this unfathomable, but I can easily understand why a person could get excited about playing the bassoon.”

“I don't ever want to be a fair-weather anything. Playing through the elements is always better than sitting on the sidelines.”

“Rocky, if I’ve learned anything from my train wreck of a marriage, it’s that no one can take care of me better than I can.”

“In the smoky firelight the two old men nodded off like a pair of ancient kings passing the aeons in their tumuli. Made a musical notation of their snores. Elgar is to be played by a bass tuba, Ayrs a bassoon.”