There's stuff I don't like to rehearse really emotional things I don't like to rehearse. You just beat it to death.
Why would you be afraid of death? It would be an inconvenience. I have a lot of undone things and it's bound to get in the way. But no it doesn't scare me at all.
I couldn't have foreseen all the good things that have followed my mother's death. The renewed energy the surprising sweetness of grief. The tenderness I feel for strangers on walkers. The deeper love I have for my siblings and friends. The desire to play the mandolin. The gift of a visitation.
I think when you're 10 years old it's too much to see something with the threat of death in every episode. Kids are better left naive about certain things.
Vets do what doctors used to - diagnose the injury or the condition patch it up as best they can and remind you that these things happen and that in life we are also in the midst of death.
I was taught to confront things you can't avoid. Death is one of those things. To live in a society where you're trying not to look at it is stupid because looking at death throws us back into life with more vigour and energy. The fact that flowers don't last for ever makes them beautiful.
'Hamlet' is one of the most dangerous things ever set down on paper. All the big unknowable questions like what it is to be a human being the difference between sanity and insanity the meaning of life and death what's real and not real. All these subjects can literally drive you mad.
For a culture that has such a problem with death we seem to deal with it in a quite bizarre way. We see people shot killed and blown up and we find it funny and sexy and all those things. But the reality of it is that every day people die and people are really sad and they grieve and they go through a really difficult process with it.
Lidia Bastianich sorry but kind of boring. I mean I love Lidia but you can fall asleep watching her. And Mario Batali? I love Mario to death... but he's not romantic or sensual. Those are the things I bring to the table.
You always think that 70 is the end of the road: 'Somebody died when they were 73 good life'. You're closer to death and you better make sure you don't waste too much of your time doing things you don't want to do. No point in saying things you don't believe in.