[...] Calculus was realizing that something you had previously understood to be true in only a silly, facile way really had deep roots furled out underneath it that proved its worth and fireworks that shot up out of it too, newer and more complicated and more beautiful than what you had known before. And the roots and the fireworks talked to one another across the night air in a lyrical, sensible language. And assuming you did things as they were meant to be done, everything worked out perfectly. [...]

[...] I felt like people should do what they wanted to and not what other people would prefer. I've rethought this position over the years, though, and done an about-face. I realized that while every individual is basically forced into a relationship with himself (when you eat dinner in a restaurant by yourself, you're sort of going on a date with yourself), other people have the option to refuse. So it's other people you should be trying to impress. Being yourself can work if what you are happens to be something good, but if what you are is something lousy, then you should probably try to be something else.