Richard Cohen is the subject of his life and controls his own destiny. People who live as subjects are wonderfully alive and creative. Once, on a rainy Sunday afternoon in a café in Old Montreal, I saw a woman rise from her table and, for no apparent reason, start to sing opera. She had a certain smile, and I knew she was perfectly at home with herself as she sang. She was wearing a great wide hat, her arms were flung out in an expansive gesture, and she was utterly oblivious to everything but what was in her and around her at that second.
