Quotations

Architecture and the burden of living

Andrew — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 07:52:55 +0000

I tuned in to the BBC World Service two or three nights ago and hooked up with the end of a conversation with Richard Rogers (whose rapid and distinctive half-mumble must be hard for those who have learned English as a second language to follow).

"Can architecture change lives?" he was asked.
"You make the burden of living easier," Rogers replied.

Brahms in the forest

Andrew — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:19:55 +0000

This is number 1 in a discontinuous series of ‘quotes of the day.’ (’The day’ being the day I come across them.)

Florence May: “How can I most quickly improve?”
Johannes Brahms: “You must walk constantly in the forest.”

A little background: Florence May (1845-1923) was a talented English pianist who had travelled to study piano technique under Clara Schumann but who ended up as a pupil of Brahms himself. She later wrote a two-volume biography of Brahms.

Return of the light

Andrew — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 09:38:40 +0000

I visited my old friends Peter and Christine Hall at Breaky Bottom Vineyard in East Sussex on December 22nd.