How to be Cool

We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are.’

he meaning of a word isn’t defined by origin but by usage

What makes this truly ‘absurd’ (to use Camus’s favoured term) is that we all carry on behaving as if our lives have meaning, when deep down we know that they don’t

The Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said, ‘Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.’ But if that were taken seriously, there would be no such thing as journalism

the singer’s name was Billie Holiday: a woman who is widely regarded as one of the greatest jazz singers who ever lived.
The story of her life is the story of her voice.

To any questioning or criticism of her behaviour, the Divine Sarah tended to reply with a Gallic shrug and the phrase ‘Quand même.’ This loosely translates as, ‘Do I look like I care?’

The playwright Oscar Wilde once asked the actress Sarah Bernhardt, ‘Do you mind if I smoke?’ ‘I don’t mind if you burn,’ she replied.

Asked why she had never tied the knot with the staggeringly wealthy Duke of Westminster despite their decade-long relationship, she replied, ‘There have been several Duchesses of Westminster. There is only one Chanel.’

‘So come on, Clint,’ Wogan asked him chummily. ‘How is it that you’re so cool?’ To which Eastwood responded by taking out a cigarette, flicking it up in the air, striking a match on the heel of his shoe, and then lighting the cigarette while catching it between his lips on its descent. After taking the first puff, he growled, ‘I dunno, Terry. I guess it just happened that way.’

‘How is it that you’re so cool?