My dear Philosopher," said the countess. "You give sanity a bad name. - Jeffrey Ford

Real memories intrude now and then as do self-admonitions for a wasted life, but the smoke’s other feature is that it lets you not give a shit about anything but taking in more smoke.

Now I was stuck and could feel the tide of years suddenly beginning to rise around me.

My hero was J. S. Bach. It was from his works that I came to understand mathematics and, through a greater understanding of math, came to a greater understanding of Bach—the golden ratio, the rise of complexity through the reiteration of simple elements, the presence of the cosmic in the common.