Wisdom is the reward for a lifetime of listening ... when you'd have preferred to talk. -D.J. Kaufman.

Music is a passion of mine. I'm always listening, always learning.

I would be willing to bet that if one day a woman walked barefoot to the moon and back and a man cleaned out his desk, when the two of them sat down to dinner that night he would say, ‘Boy was that desk a mess.’

Listening is an attitude of the heart, a genuine desire to be with another which both attracts and heals. -J. Isham.

I have learned as much about writing about my people by listening to blues and jazz and spirituals as I have by reading novels.

I grew up with singers. My father's mother sang opera. My dad was a big band singer. I can't remember a time there wasn't music in the house, so I grew up listening to great songwriters - George Gershwin, Cole Porter - and my grandma was playing opera for me before I was 3.