No one has really ever defined what a friend is.

For me writing is foremost a mode of thinking and when it works well, an act of discovery

Generalization, especially risky generalization, is one of the chief methods by which knowledge proceeds... Safe generalizations are usually rather boring. Delete that "usually rather." Safe generalizations are quite boring.

My wife who is non-Jewish regrets it all the time that I can say these terrible things about fellow Jews and she can't.

That wine drinking is more effete than beer drinking? No question.

Always seek the general and never quite trust it.

The reason 'closure' is a cliche is that it is used too often, too imprecisely, and doesn't in any case reflect reality. In reality, such closure in broken friendships and much else in life is rarely achieved; only death brings closure and then not always for those still living.