An aria in an opera - Handel's 'Ombra mai fu,' for example - gets along with an incredibly small number of words and ideas and a large amount of variation and repetition. That's the beauty of it. It's not taxing to the listener's intelligence because if you haven't heard it the first time round, it'll come around again.

Christmas brings us great music: Everything from Handel's 'Messiah' to 'White Christmas,' to 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.'

"Wenn du danach strebst, jemand zu werden, der du gar nicht bist, wirst du immer scheitern. Strebe danach, du selbst zu sein. Strebe danach, wie du selbst auszusehen, zu. Handeln und zu denken. Strebe danach, die wahrhaftigste Version deiner selbst zu sein. Sei ganz DU. Nimm dich an. Liebe dich selbst. Arbeite mit aller Kraft daran. Und achte nicht darauf, wenn andere Leute sich dar?ber lustig machen. Klatsch ist meistens nur Neid. Halte den Kopf gesenkt. Sei ausdauernd. Schwimm weiter.

Nat?rlich muss die Wahrheit im Kampf mit der Unwahrheit geschrieben werden und sie darf nicht etwas Allgemeines, Hohes, Vieldeutiges sein. Von dieser allgemeinen, hohen, vieldeutigen Art ist ja gerade die Unwahrheit. Wenn von einem gesagt wird, er hat die Wahrheit gesagt, so haben zun?chst einige oder viele oder einer etwas anderes gesagt, eine L?ge oder etwas Allgemeines, aber er hat die Wahrheit gesagt, etwas Praktisches, Tats?chliches, Unleugbares, das, um was es sich handelte.

A week after Fred and George's departure, Harry witnessed Professor McGonagall walking right past Peeves, who was determinedly loosening a crystal chandelier, and could have sworn he heard her tell the poltergeist out of the corner of her mouth, "It unscrews the other way.

I've apparently been the victim of growing up, which apparently happens to all of us at one point or another. It's been going on for quite some time now, without me knowing it. I've found that growing up can mean a lot of things. For me, it doesn't mean I should become somebody completely new and stop loving the things I used to love. It means I've just added more things to my list. Like for example, I'm still beyond obsessed with the winter season and I still start putting up strings of lights in September. I still love sparkles and grocery shopping and really old cats that are only nice to you half the time. I still love writing in my journal and wearing dresses all the time and staring at chandeliers. But some new things I've fallen in love with -- mismatched everything. Mismatched chairs, mismatched colors, mismatched personalities. I love spraying perfumes I used to wear when I was in high school. It brings me back to the days of trying to get a close parking spot at school, trying to get noticed by soccer players, and trying to figure out how to avoid doing or saying anything uncool, and wishing every minute of every day that one day maybe I'd get a chance to win a Grammy. Or something crazy and out of reach like that. ;) I love old buildings with the paint chipping off the walls and my dad's stories about college. I love the freedom of living alone, but I also love things that make me feel seven again. Back then naivety was the norm and skepticism was a foreign language, and I just think every once in a while you need fries and a chocolate milkshake and your mom. I love picking up a cookbook and closing my eyes and opening it to a random page, then attempting to make that recipe. I've loved my fans from the very first day, but they've said things and done things recently that make me feel like they're my friends -- more now than ever before. I'll never go a day without thinking about our memories together.

Criticism is the windows and chandeliers of art: it illuminates the enveloping darkness in which art might otherwise rest only vaguely discernible and perhaps altogether unseen.