“Fashion models, TV stars – they had nothing to do with the way people really were.  Real people, even the strongest of them, were sadly perforated by weakness and inconsistency.  Failure was everywhere, also selfishness, cowardice, disharmony, and physical imperfection – gross physical imperfection.  People did not live for great ideals or for noble visions; they lived for their divorces, their promotions, the instant gratifications of sex and food.  They told lies, they smiled slyly at themselves in mirrors as they passed.”

-Carol Shieds, from A Fairly Conventional Woman

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