I just happen to have one of those skill sets that allows me to work in my underwear.
That's what fiction writers do: create characters and do terrible things to them for the entertainment of others. If they feel guilty enough, they write happy endings.
There is nothing worse than annotated humour.
The poor are the only ones who suffer. And they're used to it.
I've been trying for some time to develop a lifestyle that doesn't require my presence.
Isn't it possible that self-esteem isn't causal at all, but simply the happy side effect of a sturdy character, itself the product of unambiguous moral education?