Anger is an expensive luxury in which only men of certain income can indulge.

Curtis frames anger as a “luxury” that carries real costs—lost opportunities, damaged relationships, impaired judgment, and reputational harm. Calling it “expensive” suggests that indulging anger requires a cushion: people with fewer resources cannot afford the consequences of impulsive conflict, while those with social or financial capital may feel insulated from fallout. The remark also implies a moral critique of privilege: the powerful can externalize the costs of their temper onto others. In this reading, the quote is both practical advice (self-control is economically and socially prudent) and social commentary on how inequality shapes whose emotions are tolerated and whose are punished.