Ms. BLACKBURN: I think, for me, one of the things that shocked me and led me to want to write a book about Billie Holiday was because every time you pick up a CD or a record or a biography, before they've even begun anything else about her, there was a mention of this drug element in her life.

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To me this is Brahms asserting his conviction that he must write this symphony, even though everyone had virtually given up on him.

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