Quotes by Terry Teachout

I am, as it happens, a baby boomer, but not one who feels any broad-gauge nostalgia for the 60s and 70s. My attitude resembles that of my parents, who were born in the 20s and lived through the Great Depression and World War II.

In 2004, the iPod was a novelty, and tablet computers were a dream. Now we take for granted that we can see whatever we want whenever and wherever we want to see it, be it Grand Illusion or Duck Dynasty.

Most of us remember Nat King Cole as a vocalist. His warm, grainy baritone is still so closely identified with such familiar ballads as Stardust and The Christmas Song that its hard to imagine anyone else performing them.

Critics at their best are independent voices; people take seriously their responsibility to see as many things as they can see, put them in the widest possible perspective, educate their readers. I really do think of myself as a teacher.

Century-old records are the closest thing we have to a time machine. To listen to the voice of Theodore Roosevelt or the piano playing of Claude Debussy is to feel the years falling away like autumn leaves from a maple tree.