“Paradise Lost is a poem. The old, blind bastard’s trying to sing to you. Listen, as the Isley Brothers say, to the music. You must learn to do that before you can expect to understand. Slowly. Slowly. A few licks at a time.”

“Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up.”

“Kids use words in ways that release hidden meanings, revel the history buried in sounds. They haven't forgotten that words can be more than signs, that words have magic, the power to be things, to point to themselves and materialize. With their back-formations, archaisms, their tendency to play the music in words--rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, repetition--children peel the skin from language. Words become incantatory. Open Sesame. Abracadabra. Perhaps a child will remember the word and will bring the walls tumbling down.”

“Looking at each other like, What the fuck's going on here? We big-time undercover supercops.”

“All Stories are True.”

“If you learn music you'll learn most all there is to know.”

“There's nothing you can do that can't be doneNothing you can sing that can't be sung. Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game. It's easy.Nothing you can make that can't be made. No one you can save that can't be saved. Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time. It's easy.Nothing you can know that isn't known. Nothing you can see that isn't shown. Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be. It's easy.”