Rich dictatorships are ignored in favour of chiding poor African democracies for their "flaws".
We can champion these figures and like them all the more for their flaws.
I just went in looking for the best story, and the people were more heroic for their flaws".
But even writers he rates are chided for their flaws – Thomas Hardy's "grinding plots"; Ian McEwan's fondness for "thrillerish defamiliarisation".
She's an inherently likeable person yet the parts she picks have been notable for their flaws.
But we love whom we love not for their virtues but for their flaws, and its extremes still seem to call for extreme allegiances.
"These women are unapologetic for their flaws, for being in your face, for making mistakes and speaking their mind," said Kate Mulgrew, who plays Red, a fierce Russian woman locked up for mafia activity.
He then played "What Is Love?," a cutting number in which he addresses both of his parents, indicting them for their flaws: "What is love?/Is it giving up?/'Cause that's not how you raised me".
It is important to give your children the liberty to be flawed – to know that it's OK to be imperfect, and that, in fact, we often love people for their flaws – perfect people (whom we can only imagine, as they do not exist) are easy to respect, but hard to love.
He is a perceptive literary critic, too, and not shy of praising writers he admires, even as he chides others for their flaws.Mr Bram attributes the neglect of this facet of literary history to a persistent discomfort in the straight world with too much overt gayness.
