"Listen, it's pretty clear that this impulse of yours to always interject with platitudes issues from feelings of intellectual inferiority."

"Prick"

"It's just like someone who's combative to compensate for feeling vulnerable. By the way you do that too. But for now let's focus on your feelings about my advanced coursework."

"Just because you take a karate class at a community college, taught by a 75-year old white guy who insists you call him Master Knuckles, does not make you a doctoral candidate."

"Oh dear, this is more serious than I thought. I'm glad we didn't wait any longer; you're beginning to resent me for the discipline and internal order that Master Knuckles has drummed into me."

"He's brained you with his walker three times now. I get the feeling that he's not a karate expert of any sort, is given to easy agitation, and does not like your company."

"If it's easier for you, we can treat Master Knuckles as the sort of personification of all of the ruin of your life, your aversion to stretching, your angry neglect of the internal energy highways..."

"Will you please just climb down from there. I believe you."