Cross the street to avoid making aimless chitchat with random acquaintances.

I use a lot of old-fashioned expressions.

Theodor Geisel (otherwise known as Dr. Seuss) spent his workdays ensconced in his private studio, the walls lined with sketches and drawings, in a bell-tower outside his La Jolla, California, house. Geisel was a much more quiet man than his jocular rhymes suggest. He rarely ventured out in public to meet his young readership, fretting that kids would expect a merry, outspoken, Cat in the Hat–like figure, and would be disappointed with his reserved personality. “In mass, [children] terrify me,” he admitted.

The pressure to entertain, to sell ourselves, and never to be visibly anxious keeps ratcheting up.

When you go to a football game and someone offers you a beer [...], they're really saying hi, have a glass of extroversion.

Solitude matters. And for some people it's the air they breathe.

Everyone shines, given the right lighting.