In the end, the desolate age always turns instinctively to Classicism, which if nothing else legislates against certain kinds of disappointment. - Don Paterson

My late friend hated book-jackets, and ripped them all off immediately. I think he felt, somehow, that the book was still trying to sell him its contents after he had paid for it (or turn him in, if he had stolen it). Dejacketed, the book is anonymous and valueless. To translate something immediately into this state is an unequivocal act of proprietorship. You remove a book-jacket just as you make a lover naked: before their complete possession, they must be removed from the currency.

The audience will always feel far more generous if, as some point in the evening, a little time has been found for them to applaud themselves.

Yes, I know Marcus Aurelius or Vauvenargues or Chesterton has already said this, and far better; but let’s face it—you weren’t listening then either.