Billy Collins Quote

I would rather eat at the bar,but such behavior is regardedby professionals as a form of denial,so here I am seated aloneat a table with a white tableclothattended by an elderly waiter with no name–ideal conditions for dining aloneaccording to the connoisseurs of this minor talent.I have brought neither book nor newspapersince reading material is considered cheating.Eating alone, they say, means eating alone,not in the company of Montaigneor the ever-engaging Nancy Mitford.Nor do I keep glancing up as if waitingfor someone who inevitably fails to appear–a sign of moral weaknessto those who take this practice seriously.