Quotes from The Soloist Who's talking? What's the situation? What does the quote reveal about the plot, the characters, and the themes explored in the novel?

SELECTED QUOTES

Maybe scientists will discover that musical genius is an allergic reaction to sound or a symptom of a vitamin deficiency. P3

I'll be thirty-six years old this spring, which is young for a retired concert soloist but old for a virgin. P4

Whenever I complained of loneliness my mother would tell me that God had given me a special gift and as painful as it was for her to be so strict it would be unforgivable if she allowed me to throw it away. P6

My natural gift for intonation turned against me. P9

Concerts became interminable humiliations instead if being euphoric experiences for me. P9

“Every man,” he said as if reciting a prayer “discovers that God has given him faulty equipment. That's where the difference between an ordinary musician and a great artist lies-how they face their shortcomings.” P15

When I was a kid I used to despise it when adults would patronize me, but as soon as I grew up I found myself doing the same thing and feeling guilty about it. P21

The astronauts careen through infinity at five miles a second, working and even floating outside the capsule but always surrounded by absolute silence. What does that do to someone? I wonder. To stare at all that velvety blackness and see the earth floating in near perfect emptiness, where sound has no meaning at all. P23

I longed to concertize again –I'd longed for it every single day of the sixteen years since I'd had to stop-and occasionally I thought I was ready to try, but at the same time I was terrified of repeating what had happened at my last concert. P26

Most of the gifted child prodigies you read about in the paper or see onstage are gifted mimics rather than artists and the ability to imitate wears thin pretty quickly. A true prodigy –someone in whom the emotions of music actually resonate and find expression at a very young age –is rare. P36

Chromatic scales are notoriously difficult, and even when you do them properly you feel you may go insane from listening to them. P40

He cleared his throat loudly and called the court to order, introducing the case as The State of California vs. Philip Weber . The charge was second-degree murder. “This charge,” he warned us, “is not to be taken as evidence of guilt. It is an accusation, not a declaration; all of you are to presume that the defendant is innocent until proven otherwise.” P42

Every piece, every time you play it, is unique and irreplaceable. You should open your ears and heart to every phrase, every note and squeeze every drop of beauty you can from it. Take nothing for granted. P47

Let me just point our here that the law states that a person who is too sick-mentally sick-to form the intent to kill cannot be convicted of murder. He or she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity, then committed to an institution for treatment and held there until deemed fit to return to society. P53

Did I think that a mental illness excused a person from any responsibility to society? P55

The purpose behind all good technique is to find the optimal balance of musical force and muscular relaxation. P56

Dans la vie if faut montrer du caractere et de la gentillesse. In life one must show both strength and gentleness. P57

I read in a magazine that just touching a cat or dog lowers your blood pressure and makes you feel more relaxed. P58

Casals often said that he felt that Bach was the Shakespeare and Rembrandt of music rolled into one, and that Bach's music expressed every nuance of the human experience. Von Kempen went even further, believing that Bach's musical inspiration was divine in origin and that to play Bach properly was an act of religious devotion. P60

Anyone can see how the courts would want to sift out the obvious misfits, but allowing lawyers to try to stack the jury in their favor seemed odd to me. P62

Judge Davis began by telling us that since the defendant was pleading guilty by reason of insanity, the trial had to be divided into two parts. First was the guilt phase, where we had to determine whether or not the defendant actually committed the crime. If we found him guilty, we would then move to the sanity phase in which the defendant would try to prove that although he did commit the crime, he was insane at the time. The judge did not explain why we could not do these two things simultaneously; it seemed like an inefficient way to go about it, and I began to wonder how long I was going to be stuck in this courtroom. P66

This incident, like Maria Teresa's story about her mother and the accordion lessons, makes me wonder how nature could have designed human beings to be so eager to make children, yet so uncertain about how to raise them. When do you let children follow their own instincts, and when do you push them to do what you wish you had done yourself. P71

The purpose of the meditation he explained was to try to find a solution to a seemingly irrational puzzle that the Zen master had privately assigned to each student. You could solve the puzzle only if you had a transformational insight, which they called “enlightenment.” P73

The thought of having to sit cross-legged on the floor for even a half and hour without budging, concentrating on a puzzle, struck me as almost unimaginable. And then do this for an hour at a time, sixteen hours a day-does it feel good to these people? Or is it a form of penitence, like flogging yourself or saying thousands of Hail Marys, a test of endurance that gradually makes you feel euphoric? Then I realized with a sense of irony that I probably knew more about it than I gave myself credit for, because I had practiced the cello for nearly thirty years straight, which many people would consider an unbearable schedule. P74

I should try to learn something about classical music. When I hear it I imagine guys in starched collars who all look like Freud standing around a castle with their monocles on, clicking their heals and bowing. P78

Do you really get turned on by that stuff, or is it more a cultural appreciation thing-you know, something you do because it's good for you? P79

To me it feels just like it sounds. P80

I said Mr. Okakura signaled Philip to be quiet! A slap with the kyosaku is the signal we always use. Everybody in Zen knows about it; it didn't come from nowhere. P83

Koans aren't logical, so sometimes they seem…you would think they make no sense at all, or sound strange. They're meant to make you see the limitations of your reason. P84

The koan Philip had is very well known. It's been used for over a thousand years. It goes, if you meet the Buddha in the road and he stands in your way, kill him. P84

Enlightenment, salvation, finding your true self- it all seemed too grandiose, hopeful and vague at the same time to be believed. P86

That last C was the mouse! I burst out of the woods. Chased it down and caught it! Can you try? P88

Philip claimed that killing the man was really the best way to put the victim's philosophy into action. P91

He reminded us that the crime of second degree murder required that it be an intentional killing-not accidental- but did not require that Weber planned or thought about the crime beforehand at all. P93

We the jury find the defendant guilty of the charge of second degree murder. P97

It does seem that a human being would have to possess a substantially different way of looking at things to be able to endure such a discipline. P98

Human beings are primates and primates weren't designed to tie themselves up into knots and hold still. P99

When you are playing music, you have a clear goal; to organize and produce sounds in such a way that they express shades of emotion. P100

Every time he encountered music he opened his mind to it with the humility and gratitude of someone receiving a gift he could not possible deserve. P101

He explained in his deep but monotonous voice that in the part we had just completed the burden of proof was on the state. Now, he said everything was reversed: the defense had the burden of proof. P102

Every concert they gave those years was a mistake Every note they played hurt us. I know, I lived there. P105

What would you do if you were going somewhere and you suddenly met the Buddha in the road? If you met the Buddha in the road and he stands in your way, kill him! P109

He lost the ability to distinguish between symbolic gestures and real ones, and killed a man thinking that in fact he was only answering a question. P110

As for von Klempen, when I first met him in 1965, he had fallen into almost complete obscurity, and I was the first significant student he'd had in thirteen years. P114

Bach, there can be no doubt, brought classical music to perfection. P116

But Bach's musical personality was so expansive, so beautifully transparent, that when you interpret him, his ideas become your ideas and you feel that he must have known you to have written a piece so close to your heart. P117

He told us that schizophrenics, sadly enough, don't get comfortable with themselves as they get older. Their sense of confusion only becomes more intense as they reach adulthood. They observe themselves with such frightening intensity that in the glare of al this self-awareness, they lose all spontaneity. P 121

Panic and anger and despair all mixed together. I could easily believe that someone who felt that way all the time, day after day, would fall apart. P121

I knew from a very brief unforgettable experience that it was possible to be wide-awake but feel and act as if in a dream. It happened to me after that last recital in Chicago. I'd put the cello down on the floor of the stage and walked away. P128

Insanity is a legal term not a medical one. P129

I was intrigued by the quote about self control-the one that suggested that trying to establish the boundary between an irresistible impulse and an impulse not resisted was like trying to determine when twilight ended and dusk began. P131

It sounds to me like you've got some kind of premature aging thing that makes you only want to listen to music by dead guys. P136

I found a blender that mixes at F sharp. P139

Why you always want him playing game, “Jump like cat,” Wear funny suit”? I was just like your son so I know what to do. P145

…when I was very young one of the reasons I was able to hear a piece of music and play it right back without having to look at a score was that for me each musical phrase had not so much a color or flavor as a texture, and if I could remember the sequence of textures, I could automatically reproduce the sounds. Philip's mention of “slippery mushrooms” suddenly brought a flood of memories for me. P154

With your playing you can say a great deal to people and give them beautiful moments so they can forget their hard work or remember things out of the past. I think that's the greatest power of all, don't you? P168

Because Wayne mansion looks like music! It has candles and old rugs and shining armor in it! P169

Perhaps most exciting was that he was able to relate those musical emotions to visual images; the difference between truly great musicians and skillful musical technicians, I believe, is that the musician is able to bring more than just the sense of hearing to his interpretations, When he plays or listens to music, he sees it, feels it, tastes it, and is able to season his performance with memories and fantasies of his own that may have nothing to do with strictly aural harmony. P173

Why would anyone want to achieve such detachment?

Schizophrenia doesn't automatically make you insane any more than cancer makes you dead. P187

If someone is able to make rational choices most of the time, if they're able to exert self control most of the time, then they should be held responsible for their actions. P188

I said that I wasn't able to think verbal thoughts like This sure is fun or Look at all those people in tuxedoes listening to me, bit I was able to enjoy a glorious sensation of power. P194

You're an extremely datable guy, is you ask me. P196

That's the giveaway for me. Psychotics don't play act-it's all for real to them. P197

I was not going to become seriously involved with a twice-married woman with a daughter in military school who like music I couldn't stand. P199

There was friendship, the exchange of ideas, art appreciation and the enjoyment of good food and wine…and then it seemed there were genitals. P200

Needless to say, my attempts to carve out a decision only unearthed deeper layers of conflict. P201

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. P204

I began to look at her body too closely, the way I listened to my own playing. P210

I would be alone all my life. P214

I had been labeled from childhood as an extraordinary artist, I had developed a musical technique that allowed me to communicate at a world class level and communicating at that level was both euphoric and self defining. P215

Who am I if I am not a musician? P215

He should have finished it, he kept saying , his hands shaking with emotion. P226

If justice is meant to protect and enhance the lives of good people in society, what verdict in this case best protects and enhances our lives? P229

So I look at this young man, whose mind is damaged by a disease to begin with, and I see him growing up the way he did….then I see him living in this church and trying to keep up with their discipline and their confusing philosophy...and I think it's very believable that he could have done something like this without understanding what he was doing. I think the testimony we've heard adds up to say that this was a person who lost his mind, who was no longer what we would call sane. P241

You wouldn't repair silk embroidery with a fishing line. P255

Our social conscience is nourished whenever we live up to the agreement w have made with one another not to punish people who don't deserve to be punished, including people who are incapable of being responsible for their own actions. P258

I can't live with the idea that I'd be convicting a man of murder just because eleven people were annoyed at me. P253

Being the focus of such strong disapproval particularly in the somber atmosphere of the courtroom, was astonishingly painful-more painful, I believe, than if I had been physically beaten. P263

The disagreement between me and the other eleven jurors is fundamental, not a disagreement over details. P264

I stopped practicing entirely after the trial ended. P267

Perhaps it sounds mystical, but I really did feel something move in me; it was both a physical and emotional sensation. P268

Then I had a strange thought. I said to myself, It's so simple and so obvious: when he plays, the music goes into my ears, resonates in my mind and becomes a part of me! It becomes my music too. P269

Mondfinsternis, he said reverently-a lunar eclipse. P270

I am still visible because of you-that is why I am like the moon. P271

As my mind focused on the impossible goal of achieving pure intonation, I became unable to feel the music. P274

When you play music well, you are transported. P274

It seemed as if that boy who killed his Zen teacher also wanted to achieve an impossible sort of purity. P274

I had not become the heir it von Klempen's musical tradition, but I hadn't betrayed his legacy completely. P275

I'd forgotten all of that for many years, but now I remember. I don't feel that my apprenticeship is incomplete anymore, I tell myself that my experience during the trial was my graduate recital. P275

One improvement in my life since that day has been the acquisition of a pet. P276

I realize that my negotiations with Smoky are almost comically simplistic when compared with what married couples or families undergo every day, but I still take pride in my relationship with her. P280

Strangely freed of the task of finding the right phrasing, the right intonation, the right bowing, I heard the music through my skin. P283

The notes sang out, first like a trickle, then like a fountain of cool water bubbling up from a hole in the middle of the desert. P283

A feeling of completeness and dignity surrounds me and lifts me up. P284

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