I ought to be immortal by now...

At this point, I subscribe to the "That which doesn't kill me only makes me stranger." ideology.

Ordering a 'Who said stronger was better?' t-shirt.

I went to a Jim Carroll reading in the 90's. The poems were fine, but the best part was the stories and asides that he'd interrupt them with. One was about watching Billy Idol let his girlfriend take a weed bust for him. He said that he went up to him to tell him he sucked, and Idol said "Whatever doesn't kill her will make her stronger". Then "Why is it always Nietzsche? Just once I'd like to hear one of these guys say "You know, Wittgenstein said once...""

Complete agreement with OP's feelings on this matter

Trials + tribulations + a willingness to adventure + a caring soul + a quick wit = the best stories.

@thelonius Kant can, but Sartre is smartre.

What doesn’t kill you makes you paranoid
https://youtu.be/_nW2lQ4d...
(I can’t get enough of this album)

He'd be reading away, and then tell us how he got off heroin/rant against methadone, or suddenly say "Salvador Dali stole a taxi from me in New York City one time...."

I didn't know much about him, and went in prejudiced against him as some kind of Beat generation reenactor poet, but I really liked his reading.