What is a Playboy?
An Excerpt From My Memoirs
During the course of a televised interview, I was asked, “What is a Playboy?”
"Someone who knows the secret of life," I answered.
And “What is the secret of life?" The interviewer queried.
“Not to take yourself seriously,” I replied.
Indeed, although I have been involved in many things of interest, I have found it expedient not to identify with any of them but instead to defiantly wear the mask of the Playboy Prince.
This may appear to be a frivolous conceit, but a partial explanation of its choice may be found in a letter written by Oscar Wilde to Philip Houghton:
“To the world I seem, by intention on my part, a dilettante and a dandy merely—it is not wise to show one’s heart to the world—and as seriousness of manner is the disguise of the fool, folly in its exquisite modes of triviality and indifference and lack of care is the role of the wise man. In so vulnerable an age we all need masks.”
It will be necessary to elucidate further why the mask is more than a mask,