A Lovely Chat With John O'Donohue About Beauty

What a dazzling, lyrical way with words John O'Donohue had. As in:

And I think that is the magnificence of beauty, is that even in landscapes of controlled, corrugated categories, you can be swept off your feet by just beauty.

You’ll find that quote about 25 minutes into what turned out to be one of his last interviews. It’s quite a fascinating minute or so: he’s talking about watching Janine Jansen -- the Dutch violinist -- play a Tchaikovsky concerto at The Lincoln Center, and as he talks, all you feel is brimming excitement. He describes everything so vividly -- the conductor, the violin, the audience -- he’s clearly overwhelmed, and it’s touching. And then, about 10 minutes later, he says something just as lovely: 

I think that music is what language would love to be if it could.

A beautiful collision of minds on this podcast.