Two friends, on art.

Cecily: Your art always has a peace to it. This seems at odds with your mental state at times.

Arnaud: My states of mind are the consequence of the gap between what I would like the world to be – peaceful, intelligent, etc. – and what it is in actuality.

Two friends, on endings.

Charles: I live a double life at best. When, where, and how does it all end? Do I walk into work one day and they’ll all have realised I’m not the person they always thought me to be?

Cecily: You already know your end. It’s preordained. Every moment of your life you have respired as Don Draper, and now you’re questioning whether your writers are going to spontaneously change your course? Hold their hands and walk into that ocean my friend. Buy the world a Coke.

Charles: I want a new story.

Cecily: So did Don. Escape is futile.

Two friends, on Game Theory.

Charles: Yves saying that he would choose to stay with you in Paris instead of taking a dream job in Amsterdam is classic Game Theory. His dominant strategy: lock you in. Your dominant strategy: try as many men as possible, before you settle. Those are conflicting outcomes in a zero-sum game. His best move? Increase the cost to defect. In this case, the cost is your level of guilt for keeping him here if you continue to gadabout with all the other male creatives of Paris.

Cecily: That’s a well thought-out and convincingly articulated hypothesis, my friend.

Charles: Do keep in mind that research finds Game Theory applies best to the emotionally rational, i.e. sociopaths. So you know, he may be a sociopath or he may just be truly in love with you.

Two friends, on weakness.

Charles: What is Charles’ greatest weakness?

Cecily: His wholehearted enjoyment of his own flaws. Thus, he will always find growth difficult, if not impossible.

Charles: I hate your assessment. Be dishonest next time.