All pleasantry should be short; and it might even be as well were the serious short also.
Everyone’s default state is this pleasantry state. My goal in the show is to undercut that as quickly as possible. If you really do let it sit, it’s sometimes amazing what comes out of people.
Pleasantry is never good on serious points, because it always regards subjects in that point of view in which it is not the purpose to consider them.
Although I express myself with some degree of pleasantry, the purport of my words is entirely serious.
All you'll get from strangers is surface pleasantry or indifference. Only someone who loves you will criticize you.