The Comic Spirit Masquerades In

Everything That Everyone Is Afraid Of Has Already Happened: The Fragility Of Capitalism, Which We Don't Want To Admit; The Loss Of The Empire Of The United States; And American Exceptionalism. In Fact, American Exceptionalism Is That We Are Exceptionally Backward In About Fifteen Different Categories, From Education To Infrastructure.

Beauty Is Something Everybody Longs For, Needs, And Tries To Obtain In Some Way - Whether Through Nature, Or A Man Or A Woman, Or Music, Or Whatever. The Soul Yearns For It. Psychology Seems To Have Forgotten That.

I Just Read About John Le Carre, The Great Spy Novelist. He Had An Absolutely Miserable Childhood. His Mother Deserted Him When He Was Young. His Father Was A Playboy And A Drunk. He Was Shifted Around To Many Different Homes. He Knew He Was A Writer When He Was About Nine, But He Was Dyslexic. So Here Was A Person With An Absolutely Messed-up Childhood And A Symptom That Prevented Him From Doing What He Wanted To Do Most. Yet That Very Symptom Was Part Of The Calling. It Forced Him To Go Deeper.

If There Were A God Of New York, It Would Be The Greek's Hermes, The Roman's Mercury. He Embodies New York Qualities: The Quick Exchange, The Fastness Of Language And Style, Craftiness, The Mixing Of People And Crossing Of Borders, Imagination.

I See Happiness As A By-product. I Don't Think You Can Pursue Happiness. I Think That Phrase Is One Of The Very Few Mistakes The Founding Fathers Made