A quote from an essay by George Steiner on the German literary scholar Hans Mayer: “Mayer notes with admiring reproof how often this unhoused genius [Heinrich Heine] made of literary style his sole loyalty, how often he wounded others because he himself had learned to move without ties.”

There is something admirable about moving without ties.

In the great movie “Heat” by Michael Mann the gangster Neil McCauley (Robert de Niro) makes the case for moving without ties.

In the end McCauley goes down because he forgot his most important lesson: move without ties.