Happiness is not the natural state of mankind, and is never achieved from the outside in.
Priests were metal-reinforced overshoes. They saved your soles. This is an Assassin joke.
We live in a science fiction universe. We have done for a long time.
We are monkeys. We like to chatter. Chattering doesn't cost us anything.
In my experience, what every true artist wants, really wants, is to be paid.
It was one of those problematic occasions with long silences, sporadic coughs, and people saying isolated things like, "Well, isn't this nice.