Outside books, we avoid colorful characters.
Cheap thrill: moral outrage revels in its own innocence and in the guilt of the wicked Others.
Outside literature, high-flown sentiments are merely exasperating.
Art chooses its constraints.
Retirement requires the invention of a new hedonism, not a return to the hedonism of youth
Striving toward a goal puts a more pleasing construction on our advance toward death.