"Many things are tiresome; it is tiresome to have to pay back money you have borrowed when you have become used to the idea that it is yours; it is tiresome to have to make love today with the woman you loved yesterday; it is tiresome to go visiting at dinner time and discover the owners went to the country a month before; it is tiresome to write a novel and even more tiresome to read it; it is tiresome to have chapped lips and a pimple on your nose the very day you are going to see the idol of your heart; it is tiresome to wear ridiculous boots, which split open and gape at the ground beneath your feet and it is especially tiresome to have nothing at the bottom of your pocket behind the spider’s webs; it is tiresome to be a porter, it is tiresome to be an emperor, it is tiresome to be you or even anyone else; it is tiresome to travel on foot because your corns hurt, on horseback because you make your backside sore, in a carriage because a fat man is sure to use your shoulder as a pillow, on a ferry boat because you get seasick and vomit your insides up; winter is tiresome because you shiver, and summer because you sweat; but the most tiresome thing in the whole world, in heaven or in hell, is without any doubt whatsoever a tragedy — unless it be a comedy or a drama."