靜止的哀愁

History’s curious, because our interests change, and as they change, our evaluation of the past changes. There were 20 years where no one listened to Bartok. Now we’re hearing him again. There’s no final judgment of history, because we judge music from the point of view of the present, and the present will always be new.

（摘錄自Music Downtown – Writings from the Village Voice by Kyle Gann，第33頁—Midtown Avant-Gardist (Philip Glass Sails Columbus into a Clash of Keys and Cultures)）

Nothing bad will happen to you, more importantly, nothing good will happen to you if you do.

Good books can be pretty awful sometimes.

（摘錄自House Keeping VS. The Dirt by Nick Hornby，第17頁 – Preface。本句乃作者對於選購或是閱讀經典（or暢銷）名著的看法）

簡單說來，作者認為與其花時間看了一本自己看不懂、越看越痛苦、但大家卻評價無敵高、超級有夠經典的作品，不如看一本能讓自己有感受、一看就懂的作品，這讓我想起閱讀由偉大的普立茲小說獎得主Jonathan Lethem所撰寫的The Disappointment Artist。當初購買時純粹是為了最後一篇中獨特的音樂撰寫方式（將聆聽與母親過世的時空背景連結），結果扣除掉最後一篇，堪稱我今年原文閱讀最痛苦的一本書！作者評論了一些他私心喜好的電影與小說家，幹！根本沒聽過沒看過！加上他用了好多好多真的是丈八摸不著頭腦的英文單字，讓我看的叫苦連天（沒錯！比唸法律原文書還痛苦！）。我吸收我得到了多少？還是說我該檢討兩年半的美國留學時光英文練的不夠好？這還真是今年僅見我看了會想罵髒話的書……砍掉重練重讀？再看看吧！

Zero!

People have tried to explain in words what the power of music is – and usually failed. All we know is that sometimes, a short song, taking just a few minutes, can have as much impression on a listener as sometimes a whole novel can…. You can bounce the experiences of your life against it, and it bounces back new meanings.

（摘錄自American Music Is by Nat Hentoff, 第六頁 – Billie Holiday: The Ghosts of “ Strange Fruit.” 本句乃本書作者另外由Joel Katz的紀錄片Congressional Record中所節錄）