"We do not become CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. It's hard for us to believe we have any significance as individuals. After all, when we get sick, the show goes on and the audience doesn't even notice. Yet collectively, we are indispensable and sometimes magnificent." (18)

"You breathe in--fast, deep full--and then spin the breath out, carefully releasing it at just the right rate, like fishing line." (31)

"Choral singers are followers, in the best sense of the word. Not mindless automatons, but people who listen, digest, and process a wealth of information, then execute the directions as understood." (68)

"What does it matter? How could it possibly matter, whether we sing a chord in tune? I say it does. I say that each passionate, precise note is an act of defiance and a prayer. Human creatures can create, destroy, or sink into numbness. These seem to me the choices." (178)

— How Can We Keep From Singing by Joan Oliver Goldsmith (Page 18 - 178)