Something happens to us all when we experience something as a unit that doesn't occur when we're on our couches or holding our little portable DVD players.

When something really extreme happens, you have to find a way to embrace that and include it in how you think about the character. Sometimes it's not easy.

Writing is hard work. Generating stories that catch people's attention and holding it are very difficult.

We lament the speed of our society and the lack of depth and the nature of disposable information.

What we have to get clear to kids is that when you offer your stillness and open yourself to the experience of music, it pays you back more than you give.

The simple act of sitting down and playing something enormously complex and spiritually uplifting on a harpsichord just bores kids to tears. There's no sizzle, there's no grab. But it's the great lesson of serious music, that it invites you to listen, rather than demands that you listen.