Sleep is an excellent way of listening to an opera.

Opera once was an important social instrument - especially in Italy. With Rossini and Verdi people were listening to opera together and having the same catharsis with the same story, the same moral dilemmas. They were holding hands in the darkness. That has gone. Now perhaps they are holding hands watching television.

I never miss a good chance to shut up

I'm not that surprised. Listening to the first-quarter conference call, [Chief Financial Officer] John Devine was agitated about European, South American, and as a whole, international results.

There is no such thing as a worthless conversation, provided you know what to listen for. And questions are the breath of life for a conversation. -James Nathan Miller.

My wife Jeane has been listening to me play the flute nearly everyday for the last 22 years or more. She thinks I sound the best on gold but that the other metals have different qualities.