HomoGenius

 “He will not ask the name of the movie star, he actually does not care. Richard, alone among Clarissa’s acquaintance, has no essential interest in famous people. Richard genuinely does not recognize such distinctions. It is, Clarissa thinks, some combination of monumental ego and a kind of savantism. Richard cannot imagine a life more interesting or worthwhile than those being lived by his acquaintances and himself, and for that reason one often feels exalted, expanded, in his presence. He is not one of those egoist who miniaturize others. He is the opposite kind of egotist, driven by grandiosity rather than greed, and if he insist on a version of you that is funnier, stranger, more eccentric and profound than you suspect yourself to be – capable of doing more good and more harm in the world than you’ve ever imagined – it is all but impossible not to believe, at least in his presence and for a while after you’ve left him, that he alone sees through to your essence, weighs your true qualities (not all of which are necessarily flattering – a certain clumsy, childish rudeness is part of his style), and appreciates you more fully than anyone else ever has. It is only after knowing him for some time that you begin to realize you are, to him an essentially fictional character, one that has invested with nearly limitless capacities for tragedy and comedy, not because that is your true nature but because he needs to live in a world peopled by extreme and commanding figures.” :: Michael Cunningham :: The Hours ::