"In my case, self-absorption is completely justified. I have never discovered any other subject quite so worthy of my attention"
About this Quote
Self-regard rarely comes this cleanly weaponized. Jay Dratler’s line pretends to be a confession, but it’s really a performance of knowingness: the speaker admits to narcissism while simultaneously daring you to accuse him of it. “Completely justified” is the tell. It’s the language of moral accounting applied to a trait that’s usually treated as a social vice, a move that turns self-absorption into a rational choice rather than a character flaw.
The comic engine is the faux-empirical tone of “I have never discovered,” as if the narrator ran a careful study of all possible topics and found the self statistically superior. That mock objectivity makes the arrogance funnier because it’s delivered with the calm confidence of someone reviewing restaurant options. The second clause doesn’t just elevate the self; it demotes everything else as unworthy, shrinking the world to a single, endlessly interesting subject: me.
As a novelist, Dratler is also winking at the craft. Fiction is built on attention, and attention is inherently selective and selfish. Writers spend years interrogating motivations, nursing grudges, replaying conversations, turning private neuroses into public product. The quote slyly reframes that process as a kind of principled focus. It’s not that the speaker lacks curiosity about others; it’s that the self has monopolized the narrative budget.
Under the joke sits a sharper subtext about modern identity: when the culture rewards personal branding, “self-absorption” starts to look less like vanity and more like strategy. Dratler’s line lands because it flatters and indicts at the same time, letting readers laugh while recognizing the impulse it’s skewering.
The comic engine is the faux-empirical tone of “I have never discovered,” as if the narrator ran a careful study of all possible topics and found the self statistically superior. That mock objectivity makes the arrogance funnier because it’s delivered with the calm confidence of someone reviewing restaurant options. The second clause doesn’t just elevate the self; it demotes everything else as unworthy, shrinking the world to a single, endlessly interesting subject: me.
As a novelist, Dratler is also winking at the craft. Fiction is built on attention, and attention is inherently selective and selfish. Writers spend years interrogating motivations, nursing grudges, replaying conversations, turning private neuroses into public product. The quote slyly reframes that process as a kind of principled focus. It’s not that the speaker lacks curiosity about others; it’s that the self has monopolized the narrative budget.
Under the joke sits a sharper subtext about modern identity: when the culture rewards personal branding, “self-absorption” starts to look less like vanity and more like strategy. Dratler’s line lands because it flatters and indicts at the same time, letting readers laugh while recognizing the impulse it’s skewering.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|
More Quotes by Jay
Add to List
