"I shall speak of things...so singular in their oddity as in some manner to instruct, or at least entertain, without wearying." –Lorenzo Da Ponte
"[Da Ponte] was in the course of his lifetime the friend of Mozart, the confidante of Casanova, and the protege of the author of
The Night Before Christmas...To savor to the full the richness produced by the commingling of such exotic ingredients one must sit down with the
Memoirs and follow the gifted vagabond step by step." –Thomas G. Bergin, Yale University