If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the ‘creative temperament’ – it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

The truth is, Charlie, you just don’t care about anything except you. You just want to convince people that you love them so much that they should love you back. Only you want love on your own terms. It’s something to be played your way – according to your rules. And if anything goes wrong and you’re hurt – then the game stops, and you’ve got to be soothed and nursed, no matter what else is happening – and no matter who else is hurt.

Joseph Cotten in Citizen Kane Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles