To stand up on a stage alone with an acoustic guitar requires bravery bordering on heroism. Bordering on insanity. – Richard Thompson
People want to hear about the extremes of human nature. They want things that are larger than their own lives, and more romantic, and not necessarily of their own experiences. – Richard Thompson
Its fun to sing sad songs. And its fun to listen to sad songs. Enjoyable. Satisfying. Something. – Richard Thompson
In fairyland we avoid the word “law”; but in the land of science they are singularly fond of it…. The only words that ever satisfied me as describing Nature are the terms used in fairy books, “charm,” “spell,” “enchantment.” They express the arbitrariness of the fact and its mystery. – G.K. Chesterton, “The Ethics of Elfland,” Orthodoxy
Take my advice, dear reader, don’t talk epigrams even if you have the gift. I know, to those have, the temptation is almost irresistible. But resist it. Epigram and truth are rarely commensurate. Truth has to be somewhat chiselled, as it were, before it will quite fit into an epigram. – Joseph Farrell, “About Conversation,” The Lectures of a Certain Professor, 1877