Gaffe-focused journalism: revenge of intelligent people who know true evils are out there but lack the access/time to get to them.

Writing a book has about it some of the anxiety of telling a joke and having to wait several years to know whether or not it was funny.

Endeavoring to purchase something we think beautiful may in fact be the most unimaginative way of dealing with the longing it excites in us, just as trying to sleep with someone may be the bluntest response to a feeling of love.

One of the best protections against disappointment is to have a lot going on.

It seems that most of us could benefit from a brush with a near-fatal disaster to help us recognise the important things that we are too defeated or embittered to recognise from day to day.

We need a home in the psychological sense as much as we need one in the physical: to compensate for a vulnerability. We need a refuge to shore up our states of mind, because so much of the world is opposed to our allegiances. We need our rooms to align us to desirable versions of ourselves and to keep alive the important, evanescent sides of us.

There may be significant things to learn about people by looking at what annoys them most.