“As satirists have pointed out for millennia, civilized behavior is artificial and ridiculous: it means pretending to be glad to see people you aren’t glad to see, praising parties you wished you hadn’t gone to, thanking friends for presents you wish you hadn’t received. Training kids to feign a passion is the art of parenting. The passions they really have belong only to them.”
How to Raise a Prodigy, The New Yorker (2018)
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Adam Gopnik 26
American journalist 1956Related quotes
“Oh, son, I wish you hadn’t become a scenario writer!”
S.J. Perelman
(1904–1979) American humorist, author, and screenwriter
she sniffled.
"Aw, now, Moms," I comforted her, "it’s no worse than playing the piano in a call house."
"Strictly from Hunger", The Most of S. J. Perelman (1992) p. 45