Ashley has a famously complex relationship with language, something that can be traced both to his work with speech synthesis at the AT&T Bell Telephone Laboratories and his struggle with a mild form of Tourette's syndrome, a condition that led him to see involuntary vocalizations as a "primitive form of composing." In conversation, he apologizes for raising his voice, continuously asks if he's over-explaining, and frequently criticizes himself under his breath. Yet he also speaks with the same philosophical eloquence that defines his self-conscious characters, stammering briefly before dropping potent little aphorisms like, "There is no such thing as a word without a sound."
Ross Simonini, « Plumbing the Exquisite Psychic Depths of Robert Ashley », The Village Voice, January 7, 2009
