START: All human beings have a need to h...

START: All human beings have a need to hear stories, and a rather pretentious fraud I knew in school even used to say that stories are actually “as necessary as food.” I hated that. But, do you know, it’s true?
[... …]
END: Now really, of course, that’s really the subject for a lengthy monograph, I can only just sketch it, you know, a superficial sketch, but it really is a good place to begin, because Howard’s capacity for contempt was so—well— in-credibly vast. In fact, he really had contempt for pretty much everybody on earth. Isn’t that absolutely wonderful?

_For full extended monologue, please refer to the script edition cited here: Wallace Shawn, The Designated Mourner, Theatre Communications Group, 2010, Electronic Edition, pp.12-13. _