Self-pity” is just sadness, I think, in the pejorative.
My capacity for having a good time exists. It surfaces, however, on odd occasions.
There are times when every act, no matter how private and unconscious, becomes political.
Sanity ... is the most profound moral option of our time.
My grandmother refused to concede that any member of the family died of natural causes. An uncle's cancer in middle age occurred because all the suitcases fell off the luggage rack onto him when he was in his teens, and so forth. Death was an acquired characteristic.
Things have changed very much, several times, since I grew up, and, like everyone in New York except the intellectuals, I have led several lives and I still lead some of them.