"Suicide calculated well in advance, I thought, no spontaneous act of desperation." page 3

"Exactly twenty-eight years ago we had lived in Leopoldskron and studied with Horowitz and we (at least Wertheimer and I, but of course not Glenn Gould) learned more from Horowitz during a completely rain-drenched summer than during eight previous years at the Mozarteum and the Vienna Academy. Horowitz rendered all our professors null and void. But these dreadful teachers had been necessary to understand Horowitz." page 3

"Wertheimer went into the human sciences, as he always used to say, I entered my deterioration process, and in bringing my instrument to the teacher's house I had initiated this deterioration process in the best possible manner." page 7

"This climate and these walls kill off all sensitivity." page 12

"And probably this piano virtuoso career that I had suddenly tossed aside was a necessary part of my deterioration process, I...