Mediocrity is a business, like making low-quality shirts for low-income consumers at a low price. With this important difference—mediocrity cuts across all arts and professions, all layers of society, all politics, law, government, art, science, religion, industry. While there are scattered islands and archipelagos of excellence in each domain, mediocrity is like a continental mass.

“Mediocrity” from the book “Trivializing America” (1983)