"The tragedy of life, Howard, is not that the beautiful die young, but that they grow old and mean. It will not happen to me."

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He had never looked forward to the wisdom and other vaunted benefits of old age. Would he be able to die young—and if possible free of all pain? A graceful death—as a richly patterned kimono, thrown carelessly across a polished table, slides unobtrusively down into the darkness of the floor beneath. A death marked by elegance.

— Yukio Mishima