Pravo na šašavost

Despite the fact that they often seemed in these years to be the silliest pair of people alive, they came nonchalantly and almost naturally to believe that their right to freedom and fun and half-baked opinions was something worth preserving. It was their silliness that made them serious. Once the right to go on being silly was threatened, they would respond with considerable urgency and earnestness.

Colm Tóibín, "I Could Sleep with All of Them", London Review of Books, 6 November 2008.