Interlude.

The rest of the article is interesting (this is the man who founded The School of Life project in London), but I just had to keep this paragraph.

Despite being firmly settled in England, he still comes over as foreign, and his
books often sell better abroad than they do here. But he writes and speaks
perfect English so the foreignness is a bit of a mystery. Partly, it's his
exquisite manners and neat appearance, but also a constant need for deep,
meaningful conversations. He says his wife often gets irritated when he launches
one at breakfast and she says: "Look, I can't deal with this now, save it for
later." But he has a friend in Australia who will ring up and say without
preamble, "What is shyness?", which is his idea of a good conversation. At
dinner parties he likes to launch a topic - "What is the best form of
government?" - rather than making small talk. Or he asks people questions until
they get irritated. He complains: "There is a coldness in English social life.
No one reveals anything, says anything that is in any way naked, vulnerable,
interesting, honest, and that does frustrate me."

— From a profile of Alain de Bottom in The Guardian