" He's indifferent.'
'I don't think he's indifferent. He fucks well enough. Not the best I've ever seen.'
'He can't tell us apart.'
'Oh I don't think that's true. He asked me when my birthday was.'
'What'd you tell him?'
'I told him. July third.'
'Well what does that prove?'
'He's thoughtful. He can tell one from another. He's interested in us as individuals.'
'Maybe it's just a façade. Maybe he just knows what to do to make us think he cares about us as individuals and is doing it.'
'Why would he do that? If he cares about us as individuals?'
'Because he likes us to have the feeling that he cares about us as individuals? Because it makes things more warm?'
'Well if he wants to make things more warm I'd say that was something in his favor.'
'Yes but you have to make a distinction between making things seem a certain way and having them really be a certain way.'
'Well even if he's only interested in making things seem a certain way that means he's not indifferent. To the degree that he makes the effort. "

― Donald Barthelme , Paradise