Q: When you think of the word beauty, what pictures come into your mind?

John O’Donohue: When I think of the word beauty, some of the faces of those I love come into mind. When I think of beauty, I also think of beautiful landscapes that I know. Then I think of acts of such lovely kindness that have been done to me by people who cared in bleak or shattered times,or when I needed to be loved and minded.

When I think of beauty I think of the unknown people, who are the real heroes, you never hear of them. They hold out on lines, on frontiers of awful want, awful situations, and manage to somehow go beyond the given impoverishment and offer gifts of possibility, imagination, and seeing.

I also think of music. I love music. I think that it is just “it.” I think music is what language would be if it could — you know?