"Are you happy? Maybe that's not the thing to aim for. I thought the North Star of our lives is to aim to be happy."

"Aim to be good and pray for happiness."

"How am I doing? Brilliantly and terribly. You know when you listen to a profound piece of music? One that sort of spans the whole emotional experience. It's not happy. Happy is elevator music and, probably, you should not listen to that at all."

"...But it doesn't have that deep sense of awe and horror that's characteristic of the best of all music. But you need an antidote to suffering, and it has to be deep [...] and it's not a trivial thing. But that's better than happiness."

"...and maybe if you're lucky while you're pursuing that you get to be happy and you should fall on your knees when that happens. And it comes upon you unexpectedly. But you aim to climb upon the highest peak you can ever imagine, and that's better than happiness."

"I wouldn't change that. But it's not nothing. And it's certainly not just happiness. It's better than happiness. But it's almost unbearable. God, tears again."