The Otherworldly Compositions of an Ethiopian Nun

Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, who died recently, wrote pieces that were elegiac, but suffused with a sense of survival: we are broken, we are wounded, we carry on.

Nick Cave on the Fragility of Life

The singer-songwriter believes that we are deeply flawed, impermanent creatures who can sometimes do extraordinary things.

Hayley Williams, Without a Guidebook

The singer-songwriter talks about growing up in the South, trusting your teen-age self, getting divorced and getting exhausted, and the search for a home.

David Crosby Understood the Sharpness of Despair

The musician was gifted, irascible, often disliked by his bandmates, free-flowing on Twitter, and possessed of a singular voice.