"For years of illness, I dreaded and awaited this surgery. I knew my life would be different afterward, but better or worse, I couldn’t know. When I came to, it felt like emerging slowly from a dream, the world knitting back around me. I came close to death—I had 'gone under,' I had been opened and altered—and this closeness made my aliveness so clear and vivid. Miraculous."
"Robert Burns (1759–1796) composed the lyrics to a considerable number of traditional Scottish melodies. These lyrics have a remarkable power to sing from the page, even for readers unfamiliar with the original tunes. 'Oh wert thou in the cauld blast…' is one of my favourites. I don’t know the original melody, but feel as if I did; it’s a mysterious ghostly voice, half-caught between the lines."
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“I remember telling my students give me a minute I have to write something down, and though I say 'the words just came' the language itself felt almost intrusive, like a clumsy adaptation of a finer, more efficient form of communication—and yet, the pressure to inscribe was compelling. It was like passively receiving something and also being able to physically make something at the same time."
