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PLAY IT AS IT LAYS
Frank Perry
USA, 1972

JOAN DIDION
“On Self-Respect” (1961)
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In brief, people with self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called character, a quality which, although approved in the abstract, sometimes loses ground to other, more instantly negotiable virtues. Nonetheless, character—the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life—is the source from which self-respect springs.