Close friends contribute to our personal growth. They also contribute to our personal pleasure, making the music sound sweeter, the wine taste richer, the laughter ring louder because they are there.

Viorst’s line treats friendship as both formative and amplifying. Close friends do not merely accompany us; they shape who we become—through candor, shared experience, and the steady mirroring that helps us revise our self-understanding. At the same time, their presence intensifies ordinary pleasures: music, wine, and laughter are not changed in themselves, but are experienced as “sweeter,” “richer,” and “louder” because joy is heightened by being witnessed and shared. The quote argues that intimacy is a kind of multiplier: it deepens meaning and sensation, turning private enjoyment into communal celebration and personal development into a relational achievement.