Godwin stared at his brandy. He was really very sad.
“I envy the vicitms of tragedy,” he said, in a very flat voice. “They haven’t to feel guilty, or to blame themselves for their own waste and the waste of others. War. Starvation. Loved ones dead before their time… What have I in common with people who have suffered such things? Nothing.”
He sniffed a couple of times– tears, not brandy.
“Tragedy is no acheivement,” he said. “It happens to you or it doesn’t. The foolish can be as tragic as the wise,” …
All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers by Larry McMurtry p206 (Simon and Schuster)